Australian Football League side Port Adelaide and Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reached an agreement to broadcast the club's games throughout China.
The agreement will see Port Adelaide’s upcoming home games against Essendon in Round 3 and Geelong in Round 5 broadcast on CCTV, with the latter televised live.
The partnership also includes a 25-week documentary series titled The AFL Show co-produced by Port Adelaide and 57 Films and funded by the South Australian state government to raise the profile of South Australia in China. The program will showcase highlights of Port Adelaide’s game each week, highlights and scores from other games across the weekend and a regular segment on Port Adelaide’s int'l recruit Chen Shaoliang, who will provide insight into Port Adelaide, the AFL and living in South Australia.
Port Adelaide CEO Keith Thomas expects an audience of between 1 and 2 million for each documentary and broadcast game. He said, “Given China has a population of over 1 billion people CCTV has an extraordinary reach. We anticipate our weekly documentary show and broadcast games will attract an audience of nearly 2 million given they’ll be screened in prime time" (Port Adelaide).
