It might be too early to call it “normal,” but since Chinese investors went after the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers basketball squad in 2009, the latest news that a Chinese investment group is now looking to purchase Liverpool F.C. doesn’t seem all that surprising. Except for the little issue over the fact that it is the China Investment Corporation, a state-owned company established in 2007 under the Ministry of Finance using 1.55 trillion RMB. The corporation is charged with managing part of the country’s foreign reserves, and is one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds.

Kenneth Huang, point man for the potential purchase of Liverpool F.C. by the China Investment Corporation. Image from Shanghaiist.

The British press seems flustered at the prospect of having the financing arm of the Chinese government owning a football club. The BBC’s Beijing corespondent Chris Hogg cautioned the move by the CIC in an August 5 podcast. The Guardian questioned the decision by the CIC, calling a potential Liverpool purchase “the odd one out in the CIC investment portfolio,” given the group has invested in firms such as Coca-Cola, Apple and Motorala, but has no experience in sports teams.

According to the Telegraph, the investment group would be led by Kenneth Huang and his QSL Sports Limited company, both of which have been linked to purchasing a 15 percent stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers, bringing Tsingtao beer to the Cavs’ sports arena, as well as helping bring Yao Ming to the Houston Rockets and deals with the New York Yankees baseball organization. Huang and associate Guang Yang, executive vice president of Franklin Templeton Investments and chief investment officer of the China Life/Franklin Templeton Fund, would be in charge of day-to-day operations should Liverpool be bought, and the other Chinese investors involved in the CIC deal would have a more “passive” role in the team.

In 2009, when China Sports Review looked at the Cleveland Cavs deal with a group of Chinese investors, CSR championed Huang and the apparent front runner of the group, Albert Hung, one of the wealthiest businessmen in Hong Kong, for potentially ushering in a new era of sports investments into American athletic teams. Since then, the only attention the Cavs have received is the circus that surrounded LeBron James’ departure from the team to join the Miami Heat, and recently Shaquille O’Neal’s move to the Boston Celtics.

Even the NBA’s own reports downplayed the purchasing stake in the Cavs, and instead focused on Huang’s goals of investing more into the China Basketball Association. The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t even bother to make it news for the organization, as it is not listed anywhere on the team’s official Web site that a Chinese company has a stake in the franchise. Tsingtao Beer is probably kicking themselves in the pants for investing in a team that’s seen its star players jump ship, and is now a Chinese beer company with exclusive distribution rights to … just another sports team in the “middle of nowhere” Ohio.

This isn’t to knock Huang, who seems to pop up in the news every few months with a potential sports deal that elicits even more raised eyebrows than the previous, particularly because China has a very limited history of investing in foreign sports teams, but I think Huang is the wrong person to focus on when talking about the potential Liverpool purchase.

It’s also naive and unnerving to see the British media challenge the CIC based on the fact that it has no previous experience in the sports world. Pardon me, Guardian’s Tania Branigan, but what is wrong with a fund that made a nearly 12 percent return on its 2009 investments now branching out into sports?

Lou Jiwei, current head of the CIC, China's former Vice Minister of Finance, and one of the country's most seasoned financial operators. Image from Time Magazine.

Maybe it’s as simple as saying CIC has a lot of money to throw around, Liverpool is in debt, and for all intents and purposes the CIC will bail them out. Maybe it has something to do with getting a foothold on a market that is currently undergoing a number of infrastructure projects — code words for serious money moving around — in preparation for the 2012 London Olympic Games. Or, given we’re looking at Liverpool, maybe it has something to do with the massive planning project recently approved for Liverpool, the largest in the United Kingdom, that will see 1.7 million square meters of the region developed. The not-for-profit Web site Merseyrail Extensions is currently documenting the expansion taking place in Liverpool, and it has managed to pull together several interesting developments — another code word for serious money moving around — taking place in Liverpool.

Given all that, I don’t have anything to back these assertions, but Lou Jiwei, China’s former vice minister of finance who now runs the CIC, just doesn’t look like a man that interested in soccer balls. In this case, the purchase of a sports franchise seems like the first step in creating a pipeline for Chinese investors into the United Kingdom, and more importantly “western Europe.”

— Zachary Franklin

A Chinese investment group is trying to sign a deal for a 15 percent minority stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers. Photo from New York Times.

A Russian billionaire is being challenged by an American politician over previous company investments. Is this cause to also go after a Chinese investment group that is finalizing a deal to purchase the Cleveland Cavaliers?

Mikhail Prokhorov, left, is being challenged by a U.S. official over whether one of his companies was funding Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, right. Photo from the New York Post.

A New Jersey congressman is demanding an official inquiry into Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire who is about purchase the New Jersey Nets, for his apparent business dealings in Zimbabwe. The move threatens to crumble the $200 million USD deal and whether the team will ultimately be moving to Brookyln.

According to the New York Post, the congressman is challenging Prokhorov on whether one of his companies violated a federal rule that forbade any United States or U.S.-based subsidiary company from doing business with current Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.

I bring up the challenge to Prokhorov because an investment group from Asia is still finalizing a deal to purchase a 15 percent minority stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported in 2009 that the deal is being led by Jianhua “Kenny” Huang, a Chinese businessman who has brokered deals with the New York Yankees and other U.S. sports teams in the past.

In December 2009, China Sports Review wrote an op-ed on the proposed deal to purchase a stake in the Cavaliers franchise, and asked why Albert Hung, another apparent front man connected with Huang to purchase the Cavs, and an individual with strong ties to the Communist Party, had not been subjected to any backlash by the American public in the wake of an influential CCP member investing in a U.S. sports franchise.

It would seem prudent in the wake of a U.S. government official calling out Prokhorov and his dealings in Zimbabwe that both the NBA and the Cleveland Cavaliers organization are absolutely certain there are no ghosts in the closet with the Asian investment group. Then again, maybe Prokhorov was a little too cavalier in the lead-up to finalizing the Nets deal. After all, what billionaire flashes an automatic rifle on CBS’ 60 Minutes interview and admits the reason he’s become so wealthy is by nefarious dealings in Russia?

Recent public spats over Chinese Renminbi currency appreciation have been cause enough for American politicians to cry foul when it comes to China. Huang, who has a history with American sports franchises might not be under the microscope, but there has yet to be a public disclosure of the other Asian partners involved in the deal. One can imagine NBA Commissioner David Stern is hoping his foreign investors’ pasts do not catch up with them when it comes to business in the National Basketball Association.

“The aim of signing Marbury is to pay back our fans and try to win more games in the rest of the season,” Shanxi boss Wang Xingjiang told ESPN.

Reports indicate Marbury is expected to help boost the team’s chances of making the playoffs. Currently, Shanxi sits 15th out of 17th in CBA league standings.

Shanxi made headlines last year when former NBA player Bonzi Wells joined the team, and two months later took a vacation and subsequently did not return to China.

— Zachary Franklin

I dug through the news reports from Ohio to China, trudging through the same list of accolades and accomplishments of Albert Hung, one of the wealthiest businessmen in Hong Kong, who is finalizing a deal to buy a 15 percent stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Then I waited for the negative backlash.

There was none.

The NBA in China blog did a writeup of Hung, stating “Hung is a member of numerous powerful groups and committees including: the Standing Committee of National Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the Vice President of China Sports Foundation, Vice Chairman of Major Sports Events Committee, the President of All Stars Sports Association Ltd. of Hong Kong, and Vice President and Director of the South China Athletic Association.”

I was waiting for the harsh comments concerning a Chinese Communist Party member getting his hands on an American basketball team. He’s a member of the CPPCC, which is now a sort of advisory group to the National People’s Congress, and has been chaired by the likes of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and Li Xiannian.

The NBA in China blog went even further: “Perhaps his most valuable political affiliation is with the Hong Kong Selection Committee, which is the group that elects the chief executive of the massive Asian commerce and cultural hub.” Judging by previous news reports, the Hong Kong Selection Committee — chosen by the Chinese government — was somewhat unpopular when it was charged with selecting the first leader of Hong Kong’s provisional government as well as its other legislatures, after the citizens in Hong Kong had already selected a group in a free election. No one batted an eye.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio’s largest newspaper, reported much of the same information as the NBA China blog report. I was waiting for Hung to face the same gauntlet radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh got hit by when he was stonewalled from purchasing the St. Louis Rams. Nothing.

It was reported Tsingtao beer signed a multi-year partnership with the Cavaliers’ Quicken Loans Arena. Ohio is the fourth largest producer of beer in the United States, and the third largest consumer, according to statistics. Pabst Brewing Company, one of the oldest beer companies in the United States, is now produced in Ohio. Annheuser-Busch, which makes Budweiser, and Miller Brewing both have production plants in the state. No resident in Ohio has bothered to question a Chinese beer company setting up shop inside the Cavs’ arena.

My speculation that negative commentary would be the result of both a 15 percent purchase by a Chinese businessman and a Chinese beer company coming to town was from some of the more negative headlines concerning the People’s Republic in 2009. Australia steel giant Rio Tinto backed off a deal for Aluminum Corp. of China to purchase a 18 percent stake in June, according to the Wall Street Journal, and mixed in with the deal’s rejection was concern that the Chinese government was getting too close to a national industry in Australia — a similar sentiment made by United States politicians four years ago when the Chinese made an attempt to purchase a U.S. oil company. The rioting in Xinjiang that took place in July brought a second major protest in China over a span of two years to the front lines of major newspapers and television stations, the result has been 22 people sentenced to death since the rioting stopped.  The Guardian reported that China showed some ire in September after threatening to boycott the Frankfurt Book Fair — where China was the guest of honor at this year’s event — unless two authors, which the Chinese government deemed dissidents, were removed from the list of participants. Most recently, the Guardian blasted China for what it called “hijacking” the Copenhagen climate meetings, stating the PRC wrecked any attempt at making a real deal at the summit.

That’s a long paragraph that has little to do with sports. But from all this, I was expecting the worst when I read that Hung would be purchasing a stake in the Cavs. There was nothing. There wasn’t much praise either. Only a few ripples within the news. But I have yet to read any negative commentary with regard to Hung and his business dealings.

The silence around Hung’s recent move and the deal to be finalized come the start of 2010 should be taken as a good sign for the NBA, which has seen its stock in the Chinese market steadily rise over the years, particularly since the league brought pre-season games over to the Mainland. Then again, Hung, and partner Kenny Huang — who was the original man selected to invest in the Cavs — might just be the future to bringing more of America’s sports to China.

— Zachary Franklin

There is no question that large, global sporting events can help change the image of a city. Governments use the spectacles as a means to redevelop or invest further in a city’s infrastructure. South Africa proposed a nine billion rand — or about 1.7 billion USD — budget on city infrastructure projects for next year’s World Cup. According to the Beijing Organizing Committee, the 2008 Olympic Games saw about 60 billion USD invested in city-wide infrastructure projects, which included new stadium venues for the sporting events.

Last week, the article “Sloppy Services Bode Ill for Guangzhou’s Asian Games,” which appeared on the Global Times and was reported by China Sport’s Review’s David Yang, noted that Guangzhou would spend approximately 29 billion on infrastructure throughout the city, and an additional 900 million USD on stadium construction and renovations, in preparation for the athletic events in 2010.

China continues to show willingness to play host to several international sporting events, as well as increasingly popular national athletic endeavors. As mentioned, there are the 16th Annual Asian Games in Guangzhou. The 2009 East Asian Games are currently taking place in Hong Kong until Dec. 13.

Nanjing, which bid and was eventually eliminated for consideration as the host city for the 2012 Youth Winter Olympic Games, is currently in the bidding process for the 2014 Youth Summer Olympic Games. Even animatronics is getting into the mix, as 2010 will also see Harbin play host to the Robot Games, where androids designed from more than 100 universities worldwide will compete.

Apparent in the infrastructure bubble that takes place in cities around China that are vying for the chance to host a major sporting competition is that chinks are beginning to arise in just how productive and profitable a host city can be in the years after the athletics have moved on. Just recently, China Daily reported the city of Harbin gave up on its plan to bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, saying that a push by the People’s Republic to host a winter Olympic Games event was “premature.”

Beijing’s crown jewel of sporting events, the 2008 Olympic Games, cost a reported 400 billion RMB, with 12 venues constructed for the two-week event. A 2006 New York Times article titled “The China Syndrome” noted the original budget for the National Stadium was about 500 billion USD, yet the Bird’s Nest currently sits toiling just north of the city center.

Long-term use of Olympic venues has always been the Achilles heel of hosting the event, but in China’s case, where the country is taking on larger sporting events, when infrastructure includes new stadiums and sporting venues, what is happening to these places after the games have finished?

In January, USA Today reported the Bird’s Nest is still searching for a permanent tenant, has yet to hold a major sporting event, and there are doubts the stadium will ever recoup the 450 million USD the government spent to construct the architectural wonder.

According to an Oct. 2005 Reuters article, the budget for the 2005 China National Games held in Jiangsu province was roughly one-third of the 2008 Olympic Games spending, and the Nanjing Olympic Sports Stadium —constructed in 2002 and an integral part of the 2005 China National Games — according to the stadium’s official Web site is now used almost exclusively for local events.

chinaSMACK, which translates “hot topics” on Chinese Internet forums and Chinese news reports, reported that in addition to the myriad of scandals at the 11th National Games held in Shandong during the month of October, the total cost and construction for the event totaled 200 billion RMB, including the Jinan Olympic Sports Center, a 60,000-seat stadium that was the centerpiece of the National Games.

China Daily reported in 2008 that Harbin needed three more stadiums built — at a price tag of 370 million USD — for the 24 Winter Universiade, which featured 4,000 athletes from 50 countries. And the East Asia Games, according to the secretary of home affairs’ home page, saw renovations on the three stadiums in Hong Kong, costing about 240 million USD.

The question surrounding all these monumental athletic venues is who plays in them going forward? The China Basketball Association, the country’s most visible sport, lost 17 million USD overall during the last season, according to an Economist Intelligence Report released in October. The People’s Republic currently has no homegrown athletic teams in any sport that can fill stadiums to capacity on a weekly basis.

Both the National Basketball Association, Premier League and the National Football League have made attempts to bring games to China, but the results have been marginal: a few preseason NBA and Major League Baseball games, an outright rejection to ship Premier League games outside of Europe, and two cancellations by the NFL.

China’s sports powerhouse ambitions, while praiseworthy on the field, have yielded few positive results for long-term sporting events. Yes, major international competitions take time and planning, but China has the infrastructure in place to do more with its sporting venues,  and tying its infrastructure plans to major sporting events should draw continued usage for years after.

— Zachary Franklin

The Shanghai Sharks announced Yao Ming is not the owner of the team (Xinmin Evening News).

According to the Shanghai Daily, NBA basketball star Yao Ming is not the owner of the Shanghai Sharks, the Chinese star’s former team, and he has not been guaranteed ownership of the team.

The newspaper reported that while Yao’s management group, Team Yao, has been signed on as an “entrusted investor” for the next five years, the basketball player is officially not an owner.

Instead of transferring ownership stake of the team to Yao Ming — what was initially agreed upon — the team is instead selling those stakes on the open market. According to the Xinmin Evening News, one unnamed fitness center said it would bid.

The Shanghai Daily said the Sharks have assets estimated around 20 million USD. After the 2008 season, which saw a record 43 loses for the Sharks, the Xiyang Group refusing to continue sponsoring the team, and player’s salaries not being paid, the Sharks now find themselves at the center of the Chinese basketball world. Even more now that Yao Ming, the former center for nine seasons on the Shanghai team, is not the official owner.

— Zachary Franklin

Previously:

• What Can Yao Get from the Sharks?

Golden State Warriors vs. Milwaukee Bucks - the NBA 2008 preseason game in Beijing

According to the National Basketball Association, a preseason game between Denver Nuggets and the Indiana Pacers will be staged at Beijing Wukesong Arena on Oct.11, a third preseason game in China’s capital after 2004 and 2008.

“The Wukesong Arena is an outstanding facility that we are proud to call the home of the NBA in Beijing,” Tim Chen, CEO of NBA China was quoted as saying. “We are honored to return to play our third game in Beijing and are looking forward to providing a great game between the Nuggets and Pacers in October to our avid fans.”

Due to an Olympic hangover and a lack of star players, the 2008 game only enjoyed an attendance of less than 50 percent. With all star players like Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups, this year’s game will definitely attract more fans than last year’s.

The two teams will also bring the first-ever preseason game to Taipei on Oct.8, and the tickets have already sold out.

That the NBA games have been broadcast in China for 15 years is considered as a main reason by some as to why Chinese are not interested in the country’s own basketball league, the CBA. Today a well-resourced NYT article looks into how the CBA is digging their own grave.

Links and Sources:

• NBA: Nuggets, Pacers to play preseason game in Bejing (h/t @ChinaBasketball)
• Legal Evening News: NBA preseason game cold-shouldered in Beijing (Chinese)
• New York Times: In China, a Rocky Ascent for Basketball

Previously:

• What can Yao Ming get from the Sharks?
• The battle between Fenglu and CBA

Photo: Dayoo

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The New Jersey Nets may not have gotten final approval or the financing for their proposed $800 million arena at the Atlantic Yards project near Downtown Brooklyn, but the team has rounded up another lucrative sponsorship deal, with Haier, the giant appliance manufacturer from China.

The agreement with Haier, which makes theNational Basketball Association’s officialhigh-definition television, is expected to be announced within the next several days, according to an executive who was briefed on the deal. The company will have a store within what would be known as Barclays Center, which is part of a planned 22-acre development near Downtown Brooklyn.

Haier America, the sales and marketing arm of the Qingdao-based white-goods giant, signed on as an associate partner of this year’s NBA Nation last month. The company inked a multi-year promotional deal with NBA in 2006.

Partnershiped with NComputing, a California-based desktop virtualization provider, Haier is also expanding its business into overseas PC market.

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Shanxi Zhongyu(山西中宇), the Taiyuan-based CBA club, told press on Jan.31 about their decision to release Bonzi Wells, the most notable foreign aid in the league, for not returning to the club. Mr.Wells left Shangxi for the US on Jan. 22 and was supposed to come back on 27, according to the Shanxi club, who is to play Jilin Northeast Tigers tonight on Feb.1.

The ex-NBA player joined the club on Dec.12, 2008. In his 50 days of staying, Bonzi played 14 games and was the 2nd leading scorer in the league with an average of 34.3 points, second only to Gabe Muoneke, a Yunnan Honghe forward with a PPG of 34.6 in 19 matches.

According to Asian Basket, Bonzi Wells has been replaced by Tim Pickett, who was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2004 NBA Draft by the New Orleans Hornets.

Related Reads:

• Xinhua: Bonzi Wells joins CBA with Shanxi Zhongyu
• Asia Basket: Bonzi Wells Not Coming Back to China!

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That might be possible from 2010. According to a latest Bloomberg article, some non-media companies may bid for the next 3-year Chinese television broadcasting rights to EPL after the contract runs out with WinTV, a pay-per-view channel run by state-owned Guangdong Provincial Television. And where to watch next? CCTV. Below are some excerpts:

A group of non-media companies may bid for Chinese television rights to English Premier League matches as the world’s richest soccer league tries to gain viewers to build its brand, an official said.

The move follows the failure of the current holder, local pay-per-view television network WinTV, to attract significant subscribers and the reluctance of state broadcaster China Central Television to pay a premium for the rights, Phil Lines, the Premier League’s head of international broadcasting and media operations, said in an interview.

“I have talked to some people who are possibly putting together a consortium of advertisers who would like to buy the product and take it to free to air (on CCTV),” Lines said.

He declined to reveal the companies involved, saying only that they were “world-wide brands” in the sporting goods, soft drinks and alcoholic beverage industries. The contract comes up in 2010. If successful, the bidders would give CCTV the rights in exchange for free advertising during matches, Lines added.

WinTV was reported to have trouble financing at the end of 2008. Song Zheng, its CEO, issued an open letter via Titan Sports, saying the company is determined to win another 3-year of EPL broadcasting rights. Below are our translation:

The Future Broadcasting Rights Will Be Ours

1. We never expect a runaway success in the sector per-per-view TV by broadcasting EPL. When we were preparing and making plans, it’s never just a 3-year plan. Even in Hong Kong, a relatively successful PPV TV market, it took six years for paid EPL games to be accepted. As we’re ready for putting a long-term effort in doing this, so with our preparation in terms of capital.

2. After two years of groping, WinTV, as an innovator of PPV TV in China, has grown a lot in this department. We tried every means to provide more valued products to Chinese football fans, but not force them to pay to watch.

3. We adapt ourselves to meet the current trends. China’s digital television viewers has jumped from 10 ml to 30 ml, and we adapted ourselves to this trend (CSR note: WinTV is a digital channel.) Besides, with the issue of 3G licenses here, we’ll have more opportunities in new media. In terms of the Internet front, we turned to partnership with carriers like China Netcom and China Mobile from only Internet portals. We believe, along with many of these tight partnerships, we have a bright future.

WinTV is determined to acquire another 3-year EPL broadcasting rights.

WinTV of course can’t force fans to pay, what they did was actually cutting the prices. Their whole-year subscription fee was adjusted to RMB 588 in 2008 from RMB 1,888 in 2007. Unfortunately, Chinese football fans now have sort of a anti-WinTV sentiment. In a poll published by Yangtse Evening News (扬子晚报) about whether or not people would welcome WinTV’s enterance in Shanghai a few days ago, 45.72% of all 5687 people said they want free EPL games only, and a impressive 40.13% percent rather not to watch WinTV even they’re offered free games by the channel. These numbers will be far from pleasing to hear for the Premier League big four. Below are David Gill, CEO of Man United’s take on their exposure from the Bloomberg article:

“There has been lessons learned this year in this contract and will be addressed going forward,” Gill said in an interview in Hong Kong earlier this week. “We, along with Chelsea, along with Liverpool, along with Arsenal, have made the point. We must have better exposure.”

Europe’s other top leagues like Italy’s Serie A and La Liga in Spain are broadcast on free television, bringing those matches to far more homes. English clubs would like to reach additional fans, Gill said.

“We would prefer to have more exposure,” Gill said. “The reality is it helps us with our own business goals and other commercial aims.”

But wait a minute. Does the fans’ strong response in the poll look a bit unreasonable? Maybe not if they’re offered some alternatives. “I don’t want to pay them now that there’s free lunch everywhere,” said Mr.Zhao to China Sports Review, “Don’t you think the games are supposed to be free?” Zhao makes RMB 8,000 a month working for a Chinese magazine, a salary could well afford his weekend TV pastime provided by WinTV. But he simply won’t purchase any of their products with p2p games available online. An earlier New York Times article examined this thorn, not just for the Guangdong-based TV channel:

Major League Baseball has perhaps the most advanced online business of the major sports, and offers a season of games streamed online for $79.95, a price that league executives say will come down slightly in 2009. Robert A. Bowman, the chief executive of M.L.B.comsaid that [online] piracy hurt business, but that “it’s embryonic, it’s not widespread, and we have a distinct advantage in that we have a better product.”

Ms. Deutsch, the lawyer at the N.B.A., hosted a gathering recently of executives from other sports leagues — not just in the United States but around the world — at the N.B.A.’s offices in New York City to discuss ways of combating live-game piracy.

“We view it as an international issue,” she said.

That is not just because sports leagues abroad face the same issue, but also because the pirates themselves, the hubs of the peer-to-peer networks that facilitate the illicit streaming of live games, are mostly outside the United States. Often they are in China, where some of the most popular services started as student projects, say league executives who have tracked the digital trail of their pirated games.

Compared with WinTV, CCTV, China’s main TV broadcaster who won big last year for the exclusive broadcasting of the Beijing Games, remained low-key so far. The Chinese public broadcaster has been awarded a major package of UEFA Champions League rights at the end of 2008. Under the terms of the deal, free-to-air channel CCTV 5 will broadcast at least one live match and a highlights programme on every UEFA Champions League matchnight as well as at least one delayed match every matchweek and the UEFA Super Cup. Coverage of the UEFA Champions League on CCTV 5 will be available to over 350 million homes throughout China. In addition, all live matches from the UEFA Champions League will be available on the internet via www.cctv.com and on mobile via the CCTV mobile portal cctvsports.net.

Related Reads:

• Bloomberg：Chinese Battle Over Premier League Soccer Rights
• China Economic Net: Tiansheng wins EPL rights, but loses fans
• New York Times: Online Piracy Menaces Pro Sports
• Titan Sports:  WinTV: The future of EPL rights will belong to us (Chinese)
• Yangtse Evening News: 4o percent of fans won’t watch WinTV even it provide free games (Chinese via Netease)

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