Over the past nine years, the copyright market has fluctuated and ebbed.
The relationship between CCTV and La Liga began 21 years ago, on September 14, 2003, CCTV obtained the rights to broadcast La Liga, La Liga was officially introduced to the national broadcast platform. Since then, CCTV held the rights to La Liga for 11 consecutive years, fans through the CCTV to enjoy the first phase of the Galaxy Battleship led the second phase of the Dream Team and Crow's "BBC" Messi commanded the "MSN Real Madrid Barcelona in different stages of the struggle for supremacy, and part of the witnessed the "bat Barron", "Super Laco" wonderful moment, also witnessed the return of Atletico Madrid from the second division to the peak, Sevilla many challenges and other classic scenes.
The cooperation between the two sides continued until the 2014/15 season. Since then, China's sports rights market has entered the famous "money-burning" period, with the rights of various headline sports events being seized by internet platforms or other types of capital at high prices. Before the start of the 2015/16 season, PPTV won the exclusive all-media rights for La Liga in China at a price of 250 million euros for five years. CCTV and La Liga entered a "break-up" phase, as PPTV did not allocate La Liga rights to CCTV.
After that, the rights to La Liga circulated among many platforms. There are not only the contemporary Mingcheng, but also the organization that adopts the policy of exclusive purchase of rights, and there is also the example of Migu who took the rights and then found that only he exclusively broadcasts. LeTV Sports, once the flagship of the rights, has now died out, broadcasting the rights from the distribution channel at an exorbitant price, as well as "La Liga+", which explored a new mechanism under the banner of streaming media, but quickly ceased operation after half a year on the Internet. Local television stations have also joined the broadcasting ranks from time to time.
In the 2024/25 season, Migu, Aichi Sports, ThunderSpeed Sports and Baller Island broadcast La Liga, which is considered to be the largest number of broadcasting platforms in recent years.
But for nine years, there was no trace of La Liga on the CCTV platform.
Discussions about the return of La Liga to CCTV have arisen frequently since PPTV was awarded exclusive rights to La Liga. For example, in the 2016/17 season, there were rumors that the La Liga federation put pressure on PPTV to ensure that the rights were allocated to CCTV. Another example is the contemporary mismanagement of Mingcheng, once the exclusive rights until the 2024/25 season (i.e., this season), the early loss of rights, but CCTV in the royalties after the return of the return and did not actively "cut off".
CCTV's attitude towards La Liga is a stark reflection of the varying degrees of operational pressure that many rights owners have encountered over the same period. This clamor in the domestic rights market reflects the plight of platforms that struggle to maintain sustainable operations after purchasing rights. While revenue models such as membership, pay-per-view, in-house purchasing, distribution and advertising have brought new changes to the revenue structure of the rights business at different levels, they are generally not enough to cover the cost of tens of millions of euros a year in rights.
There is value in running in both directions
Obviously, the copyright confusion is not a situation that the tournament side would like, because it means that each year's revenue expectations will lose the mixed character. So now the return of La Liga to CCTV, for many fans are "the return of the master of the green", for CCTV and La Liga is also the best of both worlds.
In the nine years of separation from CCTV, although the price of the broadcasting rights of La Liga reached its peak, but also suffered the embarrassment of Mei Luo double departure, popularity damage, broadcasting rights changed hands several times. Now, with the double top stream of soccer strength and popularity Mbappe joined Real Madrid, a new generation of Galacticos and the rise of the younger generation such as Yamal, as well as Vinicius, Bellingham and other soccer popularity of new stars. In addition, Spain's Euro win this summer ushered in a strong rebound in La Liga's attention and influence. Against this backdrop, renewing the frontiers with CCTV is a great way to boost La Liga's popularity and influence in China and for La Liga to develop a larger market in the country.
The relaunch of La Liga requires the strong influence of CCTV, which also welcomes La Liga's enrichment of sports content. This season, CCTV owns the rights to the English Premier League, German Bundesliga and French Ligue 1. After acquiring La Liga, CCTV's copyright map is further improved. And La Liga now has many popular soccer stars, which will have a positive impact on CCTV's ability to attract viewers and investment. There are also some comments and fans that various CCTV programs will have richer production material, such as the fan-favorite World Soccer, which may be restored to the two-hour level of its heyday.
Chinese soccer still needs to watch games for free
With the advent of the Internet era, new media platforms have become the mainstay of sports match broadcasting. New media platforms are also the force that has changed the ecology of free-to-view matches in China. Unlike 2008, when Sky Success Channel wanted to promote pay TV through exclusive broadcasts of the English Premier League, new media cultivate paying subscribers in a way that is not rushed, and the supply of products such as on-demand broadcasts, team exchanges, and special explanations is more flexible. In addition, the entire Internet video ecosystem also promotes the paying habits of users in TV dramas and variety shows, and paying to watch matches in sports is not an absolute resistance for sports fans at present.
However, an increase in paying viewers is different from offsetting the cost of copyright. As operational pressures such as copyrights increase, platforms may need to raise the price of their products, so hard-won paying groups may need to reconsider their options.
The free channel represented by CCTV is an important channel to maintain fans' enthusiasm for watching matches in the context of the domestic pay-per-view market, which is still in its infancy.
Ultimately, the pay-per-view model is a reflection of the further commercialization of soccer. However, for the current Chinese soccer market, the pay-per-view model must be cautious. Pay-per-view has its rationality, free of charge, and a broad market. Chinese soccer is still in the doldrums, and the soccer environment is not easy to say. After the bursting of the gold-dollar bubble, many teams withdrew from the professional league stage, and the national soccer team's performance is still dismal. Soccer anti-corruption has swept away many officials, players and coaches, and soccer is losing its appeal to the younger generation. If we continue to implement a payment-based mechanism in China, I'm afraid it will discourage many users, especially many who have failed to realize Chinese soccer.
The tug-of-war over match rights continues, and the contradiction between the high cost of headline match rights and the low willingness of domestic subscribers to pay for matches remains a problem for major broadcasting platforms to face. As the depth of broadcasting rights storm fans, we seem to be unable to control the trend of free and paid two modes of viewing the game, but in fact, the choice of each fan is very important. So, what do you think of free La Liga and CCTV La Liga "Fragrance?" ?
