Chinese media mogul Li Ruigang is paying a record-breaking $1.3B "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," according to Ben Bland of the FINANCIAL TIMES. The 8B Chinese yuan ($1.3B) deal he agreed to after seeing off state broadcaster CCTV and other competitors "is a huge leap" from the 50M yuan ($7.8M) per year that is currently being paid to show a league whose top clubs are attracting investment from tycoons including Alibaba Founder & CEO Jack Ma. But "it is still way behind" the $2.6B per year that Sky and BT are paying for the rights for the Premier League. Li said, "Compared with international sports properties like the EPL, the National Basketball Association and La Liga, it is still small. But the value of local sports leagues has not been fully discovered." Li said that his China Media Capital had more int'l sporting acquisitions in its sights "as well as other entertainment deals." Li: "At the moment we are reviewing many opportunities, some of them quite high-profile." While he declined to reveal any particular targets, he "referred to recent reports that CMC is a leading investor" in a possible $8.5B consortium bid to buy control of F1 from private equity group CVC. Li said, "Probably you have heard the rumors in the market about Formula One. I cannot comment at the moment" (FT, 10/27).
