Yu Hang, vice-president of Strategy at Le Sports, together with other sports practitioners, is now in discussions on the future of the Chinese Sports market at Sportel Asia, the sports marketing and media convention.

Under the title of “China：what next”, a debate over “Whether subscription or non-subscription models are the future for providing sports media content in China” has become the center of the opening panel session. Yu believes that the pay-to-view model is already an international practice though it hasn’t yet been introduced in China.

In February, Le Sports acquired the next two years’ broadcasting rights to the CSL for RMB 2.7 billion. It has been revealed that Le Sports is planning to charge viewers for CSL games in 2018.

“Pay TV services are popular in the international sports market. However, in China, the internet will become the major platform for implementing the pay-to-view model.” Yu predicted that the subscription model will be accepted gradually by Chinese viewers as the CSL sets off a new viewing spree.

“We have finalized our co-operation with Ti’ao Power, the rights holder of the CSL, which gives us more room to develop the subscription model. Plus, the good news is, Chinese people are spending more and more time on online shopping.” Yu added.

In the past year, Le Sports acquired the broadcasting rights of 30 thousand matches from more than 300 sports. In January, it announced a wide-ranging partnership with Major League Baseball (MLB), which sees the sports company become an official strategic partner of MLB in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau for three years.

As Yu put it, in addition to the subscription business, Le Sports is also developing its sports ecosystem by co-operating with the rights holders of major events. “In partnership with MLB, we are going to set up 30 online communities for MLB teams, so as to provide interaction opportunities and shopping services for Chinese fans.”

Jim Small, the Asia Pacific vice-president of MLB, believes that there is certainly a market for subscriptions for the core fans who want to be served in a way that rights holders wouldn’t be able to in a non-subscription world. He showed appreciation for Le Sports’ efforts in their partnership and is looking forward to their further co-operation. 　　

Proofread by John Devlin.