In the past few years, LeTV Sports spent huge sums of money at home and abroad to expand its territory in sports events, and signed broadcast contracts with many large-scale events. However, after the LeTV capital chain problem was exposed, LeTV Sports has repeatedly There was news that the contract was cancelled. This time it’s LeTV Sports’ turn to enter into a competition contract with the AFC. Is LeTV Sports going to spend money to buy the copyrights again and interpret the story of “The Wolf Cried Wolf”?
In response to this rumor, a reporter from Securities Times · e Company asked people related to LeTV Sports. The other party said that there is no accurate information yet and they are waiting. The so-called LeTV Sports statement was false news.
LeTV Sports and AFC contract canceled? The news has been reversed several times and the truth is difficult to tell
In October 2015, LeTV Sports announced that it would buy the full media rights for all AFC events in mainland China from 2017 to 2020 for US$110 million.
Just this afternoon, foreign media reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that the AFC had terminated its four-year event broadcast contract with LeTV Sports because LeTV Sports failed to pay a recently due installment.
's exclusive broadcast contract was terminated last week. Broadcast rights for the Asian Champions League, Asia's final qualifying round for the 2018 World Cup and the Asian Cup matches from 2017 to 2020 are covered by this contract. The AFC is responsible for all football competitions in Asia, the finals of all Asian club competitions, and the Asian League, which includes all the top teams from Asia and Australia.
But what’s interesting is that Phoenix Technology later issued a statement that seemed to be LeTV Sports, and things seemed to be reversed. According to the statement, LeTV Sports said that online rumors that the contract between LeTV Sports and the AFC was cancelled, after investigation by the company, were not true. The cooperation between LeTV Sports and the AFC on copyrights for the AFC Champions League, Top 12 matches, etc. is proceeding smoothly. In addition, as the copyright owner of the AFC Champions League in mainland China, LeTV Sports will work with CCTV to bring you all the 2017 AFC Champions League games. At the same time, LeTV Sports also officially announced that LeTV Sports has obtained the rights to broadcast all Chinese Super League games in 2017 and will continue to broadcast on PC, mobile and OTT terminals and other Internet platforms.
An even weirder thing happened after the reporter contacted relevant people from LeTV Sports. A reporter from Securities Times e Company asked the above-mentioned LeTV Sports people about the authenticity of the statement. The other party said that the statement was fake news and that the statement did not come from LeTV Sports. This is not an official response from LeTV Sports.
A contract termination event can be reversed several times in a few hours, which shows that the current contract issue between LeTV Sports and the AFC is not as simple as the above statement said.
Repeated last-minute saves. Will LeTV Sports stop broadcasting AFC matches?
In fact, compared with the issue of whether the contract is terminated, the issue that many fans are more concerned about is undoubtedly whether LeTV will terminate the broadcast of AFC events due to contract issues. In this regard, no one can know until LeTV Sports gives a definite answer. However, from the previous incidents where LeTV Sports was reportedly blocked due to copyright arrears, we may be able to see some clues.
In early November last year, LeTV was exposed to a capital chain problem. Immediately, LeTV Sports was stopped by ATP from transmitting the Shanghai Tennis Masters broadcast signal due to default in copyright fees. LeTV Sports then made an emergency remedy, mobilized funds to pay to restore cooperation, and resumed the live video broadcast of the ATP Year-End Finals.
Also last year, in December, LeTV Sports almost lost the broadcast rights of the Premier League again due to payment problems. However, at the last minute, LeTV Sports paid the final payment of US$30 million for the rights to the Premier League 2016-2017 season.
It can be seen that LeTV Sports has already dealt with such cases of copyright termination due to payment issues, and basically settled the matter with payment to appease restless viewers.
But this time, if LeTV Sports really stops broadcasting AFC events, since LeTV does not distribute the AFC copyright, CCTV and local stations will not have the broadcast rights. Fans can only watch the games through LeTV. Once the contract is terminated, what will be the impact? The biggest one is the AFC Champions League broadcast on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the subsequent chain reaction is unpredictable. This result is probably something that LeTV Sports and even LeTV Group do not want to see and cannot bear.
A person in the sports circle who was interviewed said that judging from LeTV’s previous logic in solving sports copyright issues and the seriousness of the consequences of terminating the AFC contract, the possibility of LeTV terminating the contract with the AFC is not high. However, LeTV Sports may also alleviate the current financial pressure through other means. There is also precedent for
. Just this month, news broke that LeTV Sports will give up the exclusive new media broadcast rights of the Chinese Super League in the new season, and the copyright fee will plummet from the original 1.35 billion yuan to 300 million yuan for non-exclusive broadcasts. Regarding this news, people from LeTV Sports have not yet responded. However, Sunac China Chairman Sun Hongbin, who previously spent 15 billion to put out LeTV, said at the LeTV investor meeting on January 16, "LeTV Sports will not need to buy the Chinese Super League this year. The Chinese Super League has more than 1 billion I think it’s meaningless, it’s just fine if you don’t buy the Chinese Super League.”
Perhaps as Sun Hongbin said, LeTV’s capital chain problem cannot support LeTV Sports to maintain its exclusive broadcast status on many major sports IPs. According to sources, the Chinese Super League’s copyright partner, China Sports Dynamics, still has doubts about LeTV Sports’ copyright operation capabilities and payment capabilities. In addition, the copyright fee for last season has not been paid in full, and it has not continued to leave the copyright for new media exclusive broadcasts. LeTV Sports may share it with multiple websites.
Therefore, facing the issue of contract arrears with the AFC this time, it is unknown whether LeTV will be forced to use its exclusive broadcast rights to be broadcast by multiple broadcasters.
LeTV’s operating profit fell by 35.48%. Pain in the growth period of new business?
Similar to LeTV Sports, which has repeatedly been stuck in the quagmire of copyright arrears, the 2016 performance report released by LeTV (300104) today also shows that the listed companies in the LeTV system did not fare well last year. The
announcement shows that LeTV achieved total operating revenue of 21.833 billion yuan, an increase of 67.73% over the same period last year; operating profit was 44.7914 million yuan, a decrease of 35.48% compared with the same period last year; total profit was 40.1936 million yuan, a decrease of 45.81% compared with the same period last year; net profit It was 766 million yuan, an increase of 33.60% compared with the same period last year.
Regarding the issue of total profit and operating profit, LeTV explained that the company's new business was in the growth stage, which caused the total profit to decline. During the same period, the reason for the early super TVs was to quickly gain users with high configuration, high performance, ultimate experience, and subversive prices. , as well as the increase in management expenses and sales expenses caused by the company's rapid development, resulting in a year-on-year decrease in the company's operating profit.
WeChat public account: Lotus Finance (ID:lianhuacaijing)
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