By Mark Baber
April 10 – The Chinese Football Association (CFA) have secured LeTV Sports and its LeTV Superphone, a competitor of the Apple iPhone, as the title sponsor of the Chinese Women’s Super League for the next five years.
LeTV, a fast-growing Chinese internet company best known for its streaming video platform and Smart TVs is already one of the broadcasters of the 8-team Chinese Women’s Super League and will be covering at least 30 games of this season’s 56 matches live.
According to CFA official Ren Luyu, high-definition video broadcast from LeTV Sports and the introduction of promotion and demotion system will jointly make the women’s league more exciting.
In March LeTV agreed a five-year deal for the global media rights, broadcast production rights and a series of sponsorship rights to the Women’s Super League and the company has now decided to promote is smartphone which will be officially unveiled in the next few days, rather than sell the title sponsorship rights on.
The new X900 LeTV Superphone is expected to be a “bevel-less” competitor to the iPhone based on Android technology, and has already created waves with its “Crowdsourced, freedom vs arrogance, tyranny” advertising featuring a caricature of Adolf Hitler making a fascist salute and wearing an Apple armband. The phone is rumoured to include a 5.5 inch display 4GB of RAM and a 20.7MP camera.
LeTV, 44% owned by Jia Yueting a one-time tech support officer in a tax office in Shanxi province, had an IPO in Shenzhen in 2010.
42-year-old Jia Yueting, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes at $3.8 billion, has recently been setting up a film studio in the USA and his company is also moving into the production of electric cars which will reportedly feature a driverless mode. His absences abroad were rumoured to be linked to the corruption investigations which have bedevilled the Chinese entertainment industry and his native Shanxi, but it appears his company is in the clear with an early investor in a predecessor company to LeTV believed to be more heavily implicated.
The 2015 Women’s Super League season is due to begin on Sunday.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1731656284labto1731656284ofdlr1731656284owedi1731656284sni@r1731656284ebab.1731656284kram1731656284
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