While "struggling to lock down the sale" of La Liga's int'l audiovisual rights, LFP President Javier Tebas "took advantage of his trip to China" where he is accompanying Atlético Madrid to close an agreement with Chinese State broadcaster CCTV that will "enable live transmission of matches in Spain's top two divisions in China over the next five seasons," according to F.J. Díaz of AS. The broadcaster will pay a total fee of €375M ($409M) for the broadcasting rights package and was expected to "announce details of the operation on Tuesday." The sale of int'l broadcasting rights "has been one of the main bones of contention for the LFP during the summer." The CCTV deal would represent a "substantial boost in income for Spain's clubs" (AS, 8/3).
EPL DEAL: YUTANG SPORTS reported CCTV channel CCTV 5 announced on Sina Weibo that it will screen the '15-16 EPL season. CCTV 5 will broadcast EPL matches on weekends. Various sources revealed that
the premier sports TV channel "would possibly air one EPL match only in
one round under the authorization from Super Sports." This will mark the first time the EPL returns to China's state TV
channel since '03, when China sent two players to Everton. Until now neither side "has officially commented nor even revealed any details of the deal" (YUTANG SPORTS, 8/5).
