By David Owen
February 5 – AC Milan have followed local rivals Internazionale in announcing a partnership with Le Sports, the Chinese internet company. The former LeTV is becoming the Italian club’s official new media partner in mainland China. The deal is said to “span three consecutive seasons” culminating with 2017-18.
Le Sports’s partnership with Inter was made public less than a week ago.
AC Milan’s new agreement will permit exclusive live streaming of official club channel content in mainland China for the first time. “We are bringing the history and prestige of our club to China,” said Barbara Berlusconi, AC Milan chief executive. “Le Sports will promote and enhance the experience of our content through their highly technological platform.
“For us, China is a primary objective – all our efforts are focused on enhancing our presence in the area.”
As such comments suggest, elite European clubs and leagues are currently scrambling to position themselves for what is expected to be a decade of explosive growth for the sport in the world’s most populous country.
The then LeTV created an international stir last September when it won live TV rights to screen the Premier League in Hong Kong for three seasons from 2016-17. Its impending rebrand was revealed to Insideworldfootball by Yu Hang, the group’s vice president strategy, in an interview in Monaco in October.
Underlining Le Sports’s status as exclusive new media broadcaster of Serie A in mainland China, Lei Zhenjian, chief executive, said the group was “honoured” to unveil the new partnership with AC Milan, which he described as a “great football club that has many supporters in China”.
The deal was put together by Infront Sports & Media, the Swiss-based sports marketing company that has in November 2015, Infront was integrated into Wanda Sports Holding, part of the Chinese conglomerate the Dalian Wanda Group.
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