Chinese media mogul Li Ruigang is paying a record-breaking $1.3bn for the five-year broadcast rights to China’s football league, in a big bet that young people will pay for content on mobile devices and the beautiful game will become big business on the mainland.
The Rmb8bn ($1.3bn) deal he agreed after seeing off state broadcaster CCTV and other competitors is a huge leap from the Rmb50m per year that is currently being paid to show a league whose top clubs are attracting investment from tycoons including Alibaba’s Jack Ma.
But it is still way behind the $2.6bn per year that Sky and British Telecom are paying for the rights for England’s Premier League, the world’s most watched domestic league.