Chinese football fans were delivered Boxing Day relief when cash-strapped tech group LeEco made a last-minute payment to ensure it could broadcast English Premier League games, but the future of its football broadcasts still hangs in the balance.
The current owner of EPL broadcasting rights in China, Beijing-based Super Sports Media Group, at the weekend said LeEco subsidiary LeSports had missed a payment of $30m due on December 20, and threatened to cut off its broadcasts of highly-anticipated Boxing Day matches.
The standoff was temporarily resolved on Monday, when LeSports paid “a small portion” of the amount, a Super Sports spokeswoman who asked not to be named told the Financial Times.