China’s BesTV swoops for Premier League rights

Chinese IPTV provider BesTV has acquired exclusive rights for English Premier League football on “new media television” in a deal with Super Sports Media Group, according to the China Daily newspaper.

The Premier League announced in October that it had awarded the exclusive live audio visual broadcast rights to Super Sports for all 380 matches per season for six seasons, from 2013-14 to 2018-19, in mainland China and Macau.

Under its agreement with Super Sports, BesTV will also invest $1.85m (€1.39m) into the group through increments of cash and will acquire a 14-per-cent stake in the company.