The Premier League has agreed a television deal in China for the current season after terminating its previous arrangement.
The agreement with Tencent Sports will grant Chinese fans access to all 372 remaining English top-flight matches, with more than half of those set to be accessible free to air.
The league terminated its agreement with PPTV – which had been due to run until the summer of 2022 – earlier this month after a payment due in March was not made.
The Premier League also retains the right to sell a small number of matches to other free-to-air broadcasters in China, and – after agreeing a deal for this season – it is understood to now be focusing on securing a longer-term deal for 2021-22 and beyond.
The Premier League has today agreed a partnership with China’s leading digital sports media platform Tencent Sports, which will bring #PL action to fans in China for the remainder of the 2020/21 season— Premier League Communications (@PLComms) September 17, 2020
The deal will come as a relief to the league, and to its clubs.
The chairman of the European Club Association Andrea Agnelli said last week that the Premier League faces a rebate to broadcasters of £330million for the disruption to the 2019-20 season caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and its deal with PPTV was reported to be worth £564m over three seasons.
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said: “We are excited to have agreed this partnership with Tencent ensuring our supporters in China can enjoy following Premier League action throughout this season.
“We and our clubs have an extremely passionate fanbase in China and are looking forward to working with the team at Tencent to engage with fans in new ways over the coming season.”
