Sky-high prices for sports event copyrights: Is the pay-per-view model the ultimate weapon?

Tencent paid 500 million US dollars for the exclusive online rights of NBA in China for 5 years, PPTV paid 250 million euros for the rights of La Liga in China for the next 5 years, and Ti Ao Power paid 8 billion RMB for the rights of the Chinese Super League for 5 years... The prices of copyrights of Chinese sports events skyrocketed in 2015. In the context of capital competition, copyrights may become a lever to change the landscape of China's sports industry. At the same time, with the frequent release of favorable national policies, the sports industry has stood at the forefront, and whether capital can take off with copyright has become the focus of attention in the industry.

In 2015, the price of sports copyrights skyrocketed. Behind the surge in copyrights is the fierce competition among capital for top sports IPs.

At the beginning of this year, when Tencent paid 500 million US dollars to acquire the NBA copyright, some people in the industry said that they "didn't understand it". However, this was just the beginning. When Ti Ao Power acquired the 5-year copyright of the Chinese Super League for 8 billion yuan, the outside world seemed to begin to understand that the era of sky-high copyright prices has truly arrived. Because the copyright revenue of the Chinese Super League this season is only more than 70 million yuan, and the price offered by Ti Ao Power has increased by more than 20 times. Therefore, the outside world has also raised a question, that is, when traditional copyright distribution and advertising revenue are difficult to increase exponentially, how will Ti Ao Power make money?

Some industry insiders believe that in the future, Ti Ao Power may start a pay-to-watch model. In an interview with the media, Li Ruigang, chairman of Ti Ao Power, said that mobile broadcasting is the "best solution for the pay-to-watch model" in the future.

In fact, the situation of Ti Ao Dianli is not an isolated case. Tencent recently launched a paid sports membership model, and New England Sports, which has been deeply involved in the Premier League copyright for many years, launched a pay-to-watch Premier League model last year.

So, will paying to watch the game in the future become a panacea to crack the sky-high copyright prices? In this regard, the industry generally believes that there is a lot of room for paid online live broadcasting, which is also the trend of industry development, but there is still a long way to go before it is finally formed.

“Cheap” event copyrights become history

Once upon a time, sports copyrights were very cheap, and some clubs even paid money to have TV stations broadcast their games. Now, with the influx of capital, sports copyrights are becoming unaffordable.

There is a story circulating in the industry that when the NBA first expanded in China, its president Stern once held a videotape and waited in the CCTV communication room without a stool, just for CCTV to broadcast NBA highlights for free. Now, Stern's successor, Silver, has signed a big deal with Tencent, which has bought the NBA's online copyright in China for 5 years and $500 million.

Tencent's generosity seems to have set an industry benchmark. Subsequently, PPTV announced that it had acquired the rights to the La Liga for 250 million euros over five years. Of course, the most influential and controversial deal was when Ti Ao Power spent 8 billion yuan to acquire the rights to the Chinese Super League for the next five years.

In this regard, Li Lurong, chairman of Yun Media, believes that capital chasing sports event copyrights has its own business logic. The price of sports copyrights has been rising sharply in recent years around the world. In China, event copyrights may become a lever to change the landscape of the sports industry.

A relevant person in charge of Tencent Sports told the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that this year, the copyright market prices have soared, mainly because everyone has high expectations for the sports industry, which will to some extent overdraw the industry's development expectations. If future investments cannot be realized, huge losses will occur, which may harm the development of the sports industry.

Sky-high copyright "return" attracts attention

After paying a high price, whether the capital can make a profit has become the focus of attention in the industry.

Yun Media, which Li Lurong managed, once owned the exclusive local satellite TV rights for the Chinese Super League season from 2013 to 2017, and also boasted that it would create a Chinese version of ESPN (an American cable TV network that broadcasts sports programs 24 hours a day). However, Li Lurong's exploration was not completely successful. She once joked to reporters that she was a "pioneer" but ended up being a "martyr."

In Li Lurong's view, it will be challenging for Ti Ao Power to recoup its investment through distribution channels. She also did some calculations: previously, websites spent about 5 million to 8 million yuan a year to buy the copyright of the Chinese Super League. If we calculate that it sells for 30 million yuan a year, and five or six websites buy it, the income from the distribution to the websites may be less than 200 million yuan; if 15 TV stations buy it, and each station pays 10 million yuan a year, the estimated income is about 150 million yuan; CCTV previously signed a contract with the Chinese Super League, with an annual payment of 10 million yuan, which will not increase before 2017.

Some industry insiders believe that given the current situation of TV stations, there is little room for price increases when distributing content, and online media will be the main target of price increases. However, if the price asked by the TV station is too high, it may be resisted.

However, Li Ruigang, chairman of Ti Ao Power, has made it clear that he will not make a loss-making deal, and that precise calculations have been made internally for this investment. Ti Ao Power has its own set of calculation methods. A senior executive of Ti Ao Power said, "For this number, we actually have a very explicit reference system. If 8 billion (yuan) is used for the five-year Chinese Super League, based on a population of 1.4 billion, the standard is 1.1 yuan per person. The purchase price of the Premier League is about 18 billion yuan converted into RMB. The total population of the UK is 64 million, which is about more than 280 (yuan) per person. This gap itself is caused by the gap in the economic level, management level, broadcasting level, and communication level of our league, but I still don't believe that with the push, the gap between us (and foreign countries) will not be so large that it is insurmountable. So this also proves that the Chinese Super League will have great room for growth in the future, and this is also the basis for us to dare to invest 8 billion (yuan)."

It is understood that the price of sports copyrights in European and American countries is even higher. The local copyright of the Premier League in the next three seasons is 5.136 billion pounds, and the number of local paying users of the Premier League is as high as 7 million. Of ESPN's annual revenue of more than 10 billion US dollars, two-thirds comes from cable TV subscription fees, and only one-third comes from advertising.

Industry analysts say that Ti Ao Dongli may explore a pay-to-watch model in the future. However, some industry insiders believe that at present, Chinese fans have not formed sports consumption habits, and the soil for paying to watch games has not yet been formed.

Jin Hang, vice president of LeTV Sports, told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that paying to watch games will be a trend in the future, but it will take a long time to actually realize it, and it is difficult to say how long this time will be.

Li Lurong believes that due to historical reasons, traditional TV stations in my country do not have the conditions to make users pay to watch sports. Even if TV stations have some paid programs, they are not very successful at present. "Paid sports viewing is the mainstream in Europe and the United States. Whether it is ESPN or Sky Sports, sports copyrights are their core assets. They have strong capabilities in producing and distributing sports events. For the benefit of users, they can even change the rules of the game. This is their core competitiveness, and Chinese companies do not have such capabilities at present."

Is the “pay to play” model the way out?

In fact, as soon as paid live sports broadcasting was explored in my country, the first one to try it out collapsed.

In 2007, Tiansheng Sports bought the exclusive broadcasting rights of the Premier League in China for three years for US$50 million. Subsequently, Tiansheng Sports announced that it would no longer distribute the rights and that all matches would be broadcast through its own pay channel, with a monthly on-demand fee of 188 yuan and a full season fee of 1,880 yuan.

Tiansheng Sports' bold attempt was strongly resisted by fans, who gave up the Premier League one after another. According to public reports, due to too few paying users, Tiansheng Sports lost 190 million yuan in 2008. Later, in order to save itself, Tiansheng Sports lowered the subscription price all the way and sold the broadcasting rights to TV stations for free live broadcast, but it was too late.

After that, New England Sports won the copyright of the Premier League. Unlike Tiansheng Sports, New England Sports distributed the broadcasting rights to websites and open-air TV stations to win back fans. At the same time, New England Sports successively established an all-media platform including open-air TV, cable TV, satellite TV, the Internet and mobile Internet. It was not until 2014 that it began to launch a paid model.

However, New England Sports has a more moderate strategy, adopting a combination of "distribution + paid live broadcast". This season, New England Sports has adopted a model of selling 60% of the copyright for free live broadcast + 40% of its own paid live broadcast, distributing 230 games for free live broadcast, and of the 380 Premier League games broadcast on its platform throughout the season, 230 games are free and 150 are paid.

It is understood that in 2012, New England Sports once again spent a lot of money to obtain the broadcasting rights for the Premier League for 6 seasons, and the contract will last until 2019. Data released by New England Sports show that as of early November this year, the number of paying users of New England Sports Network has approached 2 million.

A person familiar with Xinying Sports told the reporter of Daily Economic News that Xinying Sports' financial situation had turned good last year. However, the person also said that the proportion of Xinying Sports' paid live broadcast income is still very small.

Tencent, which spent $500 million to acquire NBA China's online copyright, recently launched a pay-to-watch model. Similar to New England Sports, Tencent also implements a paid and free model. In addition to the free live broadcast of the games every day, there are 1-2 games that members need to pay to watch.

Industry insiders believe that the number of sports matches broadcast on open television is limited and cannot meet the growing needs of fans. Moreover, young fans have developed the habit of watching games online. With the development of mobile Internet, there is considerable room for the development of paid online live broadcasts.

"Our country still has a huge demographic dividend. The audience in the vertical project field may be larger than the population of some other countries. These are things that capital cannot refuse," said Li Lurong.

Li Ruigang also told the media that viewers were reluctant to pay for viewing content in the past, but mobile playback is the "best solution for the payment model" because young people pay much more attention to "good user experience."

Sports has become the next major battlefield for video websites after variety shows and film and television dramas, mainly due to the following reasons:

1. Support from relevant national policies: restrictions on event broadcasting rights have been relaxed, and the sports industry has become a "national strategy"; the State Sports General Administration has vigorously promoted the reform of the sports event approval system to break down the institutional barriers for social forces to organize and host sports events.

2. The sports industry has huge room for development: my country's sports industry only accounts for 0.6% of GDP, and per capita sports consumption is only US$27, less than 1/7 of the global average.

3. There is a huge demand for peripheral products related to sports events: users are particularly enthusiastic about watching sports such as table tennis, basketball, football, and volleyball. In addition to live broadcasts and rebroadcasts of events, video websites can also provide an entry point for related sports applications.

4. Cutting-edge technical support for video websites: Domestic sports video websites already have their own video cloud platforms that can reach billions of users, ensuring the safety and stability of live broadcasts of events, allowing users to watch sports events as they please on Internet TV, mobile phones, PCs, and PADs.

Competition for sports event copyrights has been fierce this year

◎January 2015

Tencent Video spent $500 million to obtain the exclusive online broadcasting rights of the NBA in China for five years, which is equivalent to $100 million per year, five times the copyright price in 2013.

◎May 2015

In May 2015, LeTV Sports completed its first round of financing of RMB 800 million and acquired the copyrights of more than 120 events.

◎July 2015

PPTV Sports is independent and relies on its huge fan base to establish itself as a video playback platform while extending to both ends of the sports industry chain. In August, it spent 250 million euros to acquire the rights to La Liga in China for the next five years.

◎October 2015

Ti Ao Dili purchased the full media rights of the Chinese Super League for the next five years for RMB 8 billion.

Enterprise sample

Tencent tests the waters with paid viewing for sports events: Can advertising still not offset copyright costs?

◎Reporter Zhou Heng of China Business News

Earlier this year, Tencent fired the first shot in the battle for sports copyrights, winning the exclusive online copyright of NBA in China for the next five years with a $500 million bid. Tencent’s price was prohibitive for its competitors, ending the situation where Sina, Tencent, and LeTV shared the world.

After Tencent paid a high price to acquire the copyright, it launched a "sports membership" at the beginning of the NBA season for paid viewing of games. Non-members can watch most games, but there are 1 to 2 popular games every day that are exclusive to members. There are three options for becoming a member: a single-month fee of 30 yuan, a three-month fee of 88 yuan, and a yearly fee of 298 yuan.

Will Tencent’s sports membership market be receptive to it?

In this regard, Tencent deputy editor-in-chief and general manager of Tencent Sports Operations Zhao Guochen told the reporter of the Daily Economic News that Tencent did not monopolize NBA live broadcasts and then force them to charge fees, but by improving service quality and user experience, fans can voluntarily choose to pay on the basis of enjoying value-added services. As Internet users become more mature, the market space for paying to watch games will grow in the future.

Tencent launches paid sports membership

Just last year, Sina was still the "main force" in NBA live broadcasting in China. Although Tencent and LeTV could broadcast some games, their options were limited. Now, the huge traffic brought by the NBA will be transferred from Sina to Tencent. However, the B2B advertising model that relies on traffic obviously cannot offset the annual cost of 100 million US dollars. Some people in the industry believe that Sina's decision to "hand over" the NBA brand that it has cultivated for many years may be due to cost issues. After Tencent announced that it had won the exclusive online copyright, many analysts pointed out that in the future, viewers may have to pay to watch games online.

Tencent's move was faster than expected. As soon as the NBA season started, Tencent launched a paid sports membership. Currently, most of the games broadcast by Tencent can be watched for free, but there are one or two games that can only be watched by members.

Although Chinese fans are used to watching games for free, they need to pay to watch NBA and other events abroad, and the price is not cheap. For example, in the United States, fans need to spend 1,200 yuan a year to watch games; in the UK, the price of the top package is 1,640 yuan.

In this regard, Li Lurong, chairman of Cloud Media, believes that my country's football fans born in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s watch less TV and have developed the habit of watching games online. There is room for development in online payment, and Tencent is an Internet company that is good at tapping into potential commercial value and has very strong monetization capabilities.

"Cheap membership" and pirated broadcasts

Although young fans in my country have developed the habit of watching games on the Internet, there is still a lot of resistance when charging them. When Tencent first launched paid membership, some fans complained: "Penguins should mosaic the games. Members don't mosaic."

However, after using the sports membership, some fans began to share their experience on QQ Space and Moments, and most of them believed that the user experience was relatively good.

In this regard, some industry analysts believe that if fans can be provided with better experience and more selective services, many fans will still be willing to spend money to watch the game. "After all, China has a huge consumer group, and any vertical market segment has huge market space, but the premise is to have good services, and fans should not spend money and still feel angry."

Shangguan Zheng is a senior NBA fan who recently tried Tencent's sports membership. He said that the membership experience is really good, and the most important thing is that he doesn't have to endure the harassment of more than a minute of advertising before the game. However, the monthly fee of 30 yuan is too expensive, and he "can't bear to buy it."

Zhao Guochen pointed out that while Tencent is improving its service quality, costs are also rising accordingly. For example, high-definition quality and multi-screen options require a lot of extra bandwidth. "We respect user choices. Users can choose free live broadcasts with ads, or they can choose paid sports memberships without ads and with more value-added services."

In Zhao Guochen's view, the business model established by Tencent through NBA is mainly reflected in 2B and 2C. "In the past, it was more about 2B advertising revenue, but now there will be more 2C thinking. Of course, in the future, relying on the strong IP of NBA, some secondary IPs may be derived, but this needs to be done slowly. After all, the five-year contract has just begun, and more innovative things will come out slowly."

However, Tencent also has its troubles. As soon as the NBA season started, many pirated links came one after another. In addition, there are a large number of "cheap" Tencent sports memberships for sale on some websites. Shangguan Zheng used Tencent memberships that were purchased at a low price through such websites.

Zhao Guochen said that in the past two years, the country's management of copyright has gradually become orderly, and if there is a major pirated broadcast, they will take legal action.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.