The End of Free Football in China

Real Madrid celebrate with the trophy after winning the UEFA Champions League Final Reuters / Eddie Keogh Livepic

PPTV recently announced their subscription model for the 2017-18 season, for the first time placing all of their premium content behind a paywall.

PPTV’s rights:

1. Serie A

2. Bundesliga

3. Premier League

4. La Liga

5. UEFA Champions League

6. CSL

7. Asian Champions League

8. Ligue 1

9. UFC

Subscription model:

1. One-off membership fee: 30RMB ($4.5)

2. Single football match: 12RMB ($1.8)

3. League monthly subscription: 25RMB / month ($3.7)

4. Club annual subscription (every game from the club for the season): 88RMB / season ($13.1)

5. Full football package (every football league and match): 50RMB / month ($7.5)

6. Full sports package (every football league and sport): 80RMB / month ($12)

What this means:

1. The end of free content: football and sports fans will now have to accept the paywall and routinely pay for the best sports content. This is a great step as China’s sports industry continues to mature and become more professionalised.

2. PPTV are confident that they’ll be able to monetise these sports rights through a membership model. LeSports had a reported 2 million paying users last year, but PPTV will aim to reach double digits this season.

3. With fans paying for content, they’ll expect much higher quality content, which means more investment into production, studios and innovative forms of broadcast (VR, AR and 3D).

Mailman is a sports digital consultancy and marketing platform and a leader in the China Sports Marketing industry. We help global rights holders, athletes, and leagues to build a successful business in China.