Mainland Chinese Web Portal LeTV Wins Exclusive Broadcasting Rights To EPL

Mainland Chinese web entertainment portal LeTV "has become the world’s first internet company to win exclusive broadcasting rights to the English Premier League" in a deal worth a reported $400M, according to Vivienne Chow of the SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST. LeTV made the announcement "in front of more than 700 reporters from Hong Kong and mainland China." It acquired the rights to three seasons "from next year onwards." It "will be the first time the city’s residents can view some of the EPL games in top-quality 4K webcasting, backed by 600 content delivery network (CDN) nodes around the world and 10T bandwidth supported by LeTV Cloud." LeTV Asia-Pacific CEO Mok Chui-tin said that "Hong Kong was the right place for his company to expand as it had the most mature market in the region for paid entertainment and was backed by a mature legal framework." The acquisition of EPL exclusive rights, alongside the launch of Le Sports, "were to show LeTV’s determination to make Hong Kong an important base" (SCMP, 9/22).