European football season is upon us with English Premier League and French Ligue 1 starting this weekend.
Based on my experience, PPTV has the best streaming coverage in China, so here is information about that for anyone interested.
Besides English and French leagues, they also cover German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga, UEFA Champions League, etc.
At least for EPL matches they have choice of both Chinese and English commentary.
I haven't bought subscription before, but will do for this season.
At the moment (possibly finishing TODAY) they have discounted 388 RMB annual "Football pass" that seemingly covers everything, and for just English Premier League a more limited 198 RMB package. Other leagues may have their own packages as they launch.
Link to PPTV program list is here:
zhibo.pptv.com/list/sports_program/index.html
There are subscription links next to matches.
Which team(s) are you rooting for?
Free live stream sites are dime a dozen. What are your reasons for paying with PPTV?
Less advertisements, no VPN needed, and my work involves element of sport media so there is some professional interest in supporting it.
As for the teams, EPL opens with Liverpool vs Norwich tonight, and in last season's promotion run the top scorer for Norwich and the whole Championship was the only player from my home country to appear in EPL, so I'll be following him/them this season.
Thanks Jan. Forgive silly old man question. This is a streaming service that works through the Internet to computers, not cable TV right?
I realize TVs are smart enough to get the internet these days by the way.
I believe Jan is talking about the website version, which works through the internet to computers not the TV. Just click on the link he provided.
The PPTV I knew was a p2p bloatware that infringed copyrights without blinking an eye. That was many years ago.
Jan, good luck to your Finnish goat. May he continue to prove his 3-year contract worth. Have fun staying up if viewing live.
Yes, predecessor of PPTV was indeed a peer-to-peer video sharing platform.
Since 2013 or so, it has been owned by the Suning conglomerate, and later its billionaire founder and shareholder Zhang Jindong who is also linked to Inter Milan football team.
I think they can afford to acquire legit TV rights for sport events now, as well as produce their own content in other entertainment. Much like HBO, Netflix, etc.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think they also have/had a physical set-top box for regular TVs. But as @cloudtrapezer noted, new TVs can display internet content just as well.
Does PPTV have the English language rights?
iQiyi had them last year but I'm not seeing a similar option on the PPTV website or app...
Spoiler-free post.
I'm pretty sure PPTV works with streaming TV packages of most service providers. Though not a physical box, but an app to download.
If you own a 55 inch 4K TV, could be more enjoyable to watch HD quality live sports on the big screen w/ surround sound in company of friends.
The coming of 5G networks would make hi-res glitch/freeze-free streams possible.
To your other point, Tencent has recently signed 5-year extension with NBA for rights to broadcast live games on their QQ streaming platforms.
I also remember the days when online vid streaming platforms Youku, Tudou, iQiyi, and Panda crossed with, later consuming, the p2p markets. Not sure how well Xunlei is faring nowadays.
Youku and Tudou were subsequently acquired by Alibaba, iQiyi by Baidu, while Panda by Tencent.
Taming the illegal broadcasting norm coincided with profitability... and passive State control.
