Streaming service owned by China Mobile improves its sports offering with UCL agreement
Chinese live streaming platform Migu has successfully won the rights to air the UEFA Champions League in China, adding to its already impressive portfolio of rights which includes all of the "top five" elite European football leagues.
Migu's parent company China Mobile, whose majority shareholder is the Chinese government, aims to use sports live streaming as the perfect platform to test and showcase the abilities of its 5G technology. It hopes that this latest acquisition will continue to attract more sports fans to subscribe to the Migu platform.
Migu has already broadcast fixtures from the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League during the opening rounds of those tournaments this season, but has now signed a new contract for an undetermined period of time.
Users will be able to enjoy UCL matches this season through China Mobile's 5G infrastructure on their phones, mobile devices and set top boxes, with some games available in glorious 4K and 8K quality.
This latest news comes after Migu secured a deal last month for all 380 La Liga matches of the 2022/23 season. The agreement will see the streamer show six live La Liga matches for free each weekend on its platform, and make the other four games of each gameweek available via pay-per-view. Those PPV matches will presumably be the most high profile fixtures of the week involving the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, but this is unconfirmed.
Migu continues to build its position in the Chinese broadcast market, after also signing a partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to show live US basketball in the country. This agreement also includes the option for VR (virtual reality), which, alongside 5G is a key motivator for China Mobile in this space.
There is speculation that this latest football deal with UEFA will also eventually include a metaverse-related component, as broadcasters and leagues become increasingly curious about the potential of emerging VR technology.
On top of the deal with the NBA, Migu has also signed a four-year sublicensing deal to bring Premier League football to its platform. The agreement, via iQiyi, will see English top flight matches made available on Migu in China.
The battle for sports rights supremacy in China continues to rage on with Migu making some important steps towards domination with its recent acquisitions of high profile sports broadcasting rights from across the world. This latest deal with UEFA will only bolster its position in the market.
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