Fernando Torres of Liverpool beats Didier Zokora of Tottenham Hotspur

So the boycott worked.

A few days to the kick-off of this season’s English Premier League, we’ve got some good news for football fans in China. Looks like WinTV, the Guangdong-based pay-sports channel, is looking to sell broadcasting rights to as many local TV stations as possible, as keeping it will neither do no good to themselves nor to the exposure of EPL.

The company so far has snatched deals with Guangdong TV, Jilin TV, Zhengzhou TV and SMG Shanghai, meaning that EPL will be back for free in Guangdong, Jilin, Henan Provinces and Shanghai. It appears WinTV is currently in talks with several other channels including Beijing TV. Guangdong, Jilin and Zhengzhou will air one game a week while Shanghai to broadcast four matches. Earlier this month, China Youth Media announced that they’ll broadcast this season’s EPL to China’s 30 million plus colleage students via Kooboo, a video-sharing website, as part of a licensing agreement between them and WinTV.

Update 1 –  Sina, a major Chinese web portal, announced they’ll broadcast live streaming video of all 380 matches of this season’s EPL for free. Like Shanghai,  Jiangsu TV will also air four matches a week.

Update 2 – Tencent Inc. announced that they’ll stream live video of all the matches of Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City on QQ.com, the company’s Chinese portal site.

Update 3 – Beijing TV and Heilongjiang TV will start broadcasting from September 26.

Links and Sources:

• Malcolm Moore: Why isn’t someone selling football to the Chinese?
• New Culture via NetEase: Watch EPL for free (Chinese)
• Nanfang Daily via Sohu: EPL back to Guangdong TV (Chinese)

Previously：

• Chinese to Enjoy English Premier League for Free?
• How China’s Transfer Rules Made Footballers Untransferable

Photo credit: FAPL