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Jonathan White

If you played the word association game using “2020” at any time before this year the chances are the response would be “vision”. 20/20 has always been vision or, perhaps, hindsight.
In hindsight, there is an irony to 2020 being so aligned with vision when it comes to foreign sports and China.
With the English Premier League a week away and the NBA Play-offs in full swing, fans in China cannot see either.

S E V E N
D A Y S
T O
G O
pic.twitter.com/rdsKWWtB8c
— Premier League (@premierleague) September 5, 2020

The Premier League announced on Thursday night that its deal with PP Sports, a division of the Suning-owned live-streaming giant PPTV, was cancelled.
That came days after suggestions that Suning had sent a letter threatening to cancel (in an effort to renegotiate their deal), but the decision was taken out of the Chinese company’s hands at a meeting of Premier League chairmen.
PP Sports to sue English Premier League: report
That ended what at the time it was signed was the biggest broadcast deal in Premier League, nay global football history, just a year in.
There had been a dispute over an unpaid payment in March, which is understood to relate to future football matches, rather than those that were part of the season that was on pause at the time as the UK battled the coronavirus pandemic.
The league resumed in June with all the remaining games played. Not that fans in China saw them all.

The Premier League confirms that it has today terminated its agreements for #PL coverage in China with its licensee in that territory.

The #PL will not be commenting further on the matter at this stage. pic.twitter.com/2TuwZeM9m4
— Premier League Communications (@PLComms) September 3, 2020

Liverpool’s penultimate game against Chelsea was moved from state broadcaster CCTV-5, a channel widely available throughout the country on terrestrial television, to sister channel CCTV-5+, a digital-only offering that has a fraction of the coverage across China.
That happened at short notice and indicated that all was not well, something that was brushed under the carpet at the time but now looks like an augur of impending doom.
PP Sports streamed all of the final round of the season to its subscribers, but they will stream no more.
European football could pay for banking on China cash
The Premier League and its clubs are guaranteed to be out of pocket with no guarantee of anything like the money that they agreed with PPTV should they seal deals with other broadcasters in the coming days.
That is also assuming that this will not become political in a country where everything is.
The English clubs have come to rely on that money and in what was already a fiscally precarious situation because of the pandemic, there has to be a genuine fear that the house of cards will come crashing down at some clubs.

Wow. The Premier League has announced it has terminated its biggest overseas TV contract, with PPTV in China. Was worth $650m over three seasons. Deal terminated after one season. Another big hole in clubs’ finances that will now need to be filled.
— tariq panja (@tariqpanja) September 3, 2020

PP Sports, who have since threatened to sue, blamed Covid-19 and an unwillingness on the EPL’s part to renegotiate.
“The global epidemic has brought many challenges, which are even more prominent in copyright negotiations. After many rounds of talks, PP Sports and the Premier League have differences in copyright value, and we regret that we have not been able to reach an agreement with the Premier League at present.”
The Premier League’s statement was rather more brusque.

Statement out of China about Premier League termination of TV deal... pic.twitter.com/0RmvXjvHKd
— Professor Simon Chadwick (@Prof_Chadwick) September 3, 2020

“The Premier League confirms that it has today terminated its agreements for #PL coverage in China with its licensee in that territory,” their communications department wrote on Twitter. “The #PL will not be commenting further on the matter at this stage.”
When both sides do comment further we can expect two very different stories as to how and why this ended.
This all came on the same day that the Houston Rockets, once the home of Yao Ming and for that very reason China’s favourite NBA team, battled past the Oklahoma City Thunder to make their way to a second round meeting with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Suning-owned PPTV holding back US$209m EPL China TV rights cash: report
The Lakers are now arguably China’s team. Kobe Bryant remains hugely popular in the country and this is the team’s first play-offs since he died in January. They are led by LeBron James, another hugely popular player. It all conspires to make the Lakers the team to watch for Chinese fans.
They can’t though. Not now they are playing the Rockets. The Texan outfit are blacklisted because of the ongoing fallout from GM Daryl Morey’s tweet supporting Hong Kong’s anti-government protesters last October.
The NBA was pulled from CCTV and remains off air, and online streaming partner Tencent blacked out the Rockets. That has eased somewhat with match reports and box scores but they are still off the schedules.

Great game tonight @HoustonRockets, so proud of you guys! On to game two Sunday. #houstonrockets #onemission #houstonproud pic.twitter.com/FYsIFjucLE
— Tilman Fertitta (@TilmanJFertitta) September 5, 2020

That blackout, if it was ever going to end, would surely be this series, but as the PPTV and Premier League fallout suggests, some things are bigger than money.
With government-level disputes raging between Beijing on one side and the White House and Westminster on the other, there is going to be collateral damage.
For now, that appears to be the two most successful overseas sports leagues that have entered the China market.
Is the English Premier League facing its own NBA-style China row?
What happens next with either is anyone’s guess but you can guarantee that Chinese fans who want to watch will not miss out on seeing their team in action.
The only thing wilder than these broadcast disputes is the proliferation of readily available illegal streams online. Everyone but those Chinese fans is set to miss out.


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English Premier League

NBA and English Premier League’s China TV woes offer a vision of the future

Liverpool's Jordan Henderson lifts the English Premier League trophy after playing Chelsea. The game was not shown on Chinese terrestrial television as scheduled. Photo: DPA

PP Sports to sue English Premier League over Chinese broadcast rights: report

A television camera films the match ball before an English Premier League game between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur. Photo: Reuters

SHANGHAI, CHINA - JULY 19: Richard Masters of Premier League speech during the cocktail reception to celebrate the Premier League Asia Trophy, the youth tournament and showcase the wider football development work in China. during the Premier League Asia Trophy on July 19, 2019 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images for Premier League)

SHANGHAI, CHINA - JULY 19: (L-R) Michael Owen, Wang Dong Executive Vice President of Suning Sports Group ,Yang Pu of President of Suning Sports Group, Richard Masters of Premier League , and Jun Zhan of Commentator of PP Sports attend during PPTV Press conference on July 19, 2019 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Fred Lee/Getty Images for Premier League)

English Premier League terminates China TV broadcast contract after one season

The English Premier League trophy on display ahead of a match between Arsenal and Leicester City in London. Photo: EPA

Southampton bin Chinese shirt sponsors LD Sports, stop sales

Southampton’s Danish defender Jannik Vestergaard celebrates scoring against Manchester United in the English Premier League in August, 2019. Photo: AFP

Tencent: Houston Rockets blackout the least of NBA’s China worries

A basketball court at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex showing the NBA’s marketing motto for the restart of the season: ‘Whole New Game’. Photo: AP

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 07: Haotong Li of China looks on from the 12th tee during the second round of the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park on August 07, 2020 in San Francisco, California. Tom Pennington/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

In this Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019, photo, Brooklyn Nets' Theo Pinson, left, drives against Los Angeles Lakers' Danny Green, right, near a Chinese national flag during a preseason NBA game at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai, China. When Houston Rocket's general manager Daryl Morey tweeted last week in support of anti-government protests in Hong Kong, everything changed for NBA fans in China. A new chant flooded Chinese sports forums: "I can live without basketball, but I can't live without my motherland." (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Saturday, March 7, 2020, file photo, Houston Rockets guard James Harden passes against the Charlotte Hornets during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Charlotte, N.C. Harden practiced with his teammates for the first time this summer, Thursday, July 16, 2020, after arriving later than most of the Rockets for the season restart at Walt Disney World. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond, File)

Suning-owned PPTV holding back US$209m English Premier League China TV rights cash: report

A television camera films the match ball before an English Premier League match in 2015. Photo: Reuters

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First NBA, now English Premier League find themselves struggling to be seen in their biggest market
EPL ended PP Sports deal on Thursday with Chinese company threatening to sue



First NBA, now English Premier League find themselves struggling to be seen in their biggest market.


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.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} First NBA, now English Premier League find themselves struggling to be seen in their biggest market EPL ended PP Sports deal on Thursday with Chinese company threatening to sue

First NBA, now English Premier League find themselves struggling to be seen in their biggest market

EPL ended PP Sports deal on Thursday with Chinese company threatening to sue