Chinese broadcaster PPLive Sports International is ‘suing the Premier League for at least £85million’ as the legal feud over football’s Covid-19 shutdown last year escalates.
The Premier League sued a streaming service owned by Chinese conglomerate Suning for around £158m last year after they failed to make payments for the right to screen live matches and highlights.
Now, according to the Financial Times, PPLive is countersuing the Premier League after schedule changes to accommodate English audiences led to fewer primetime slots in China.
PPLive paid around £515m for the rights to screen matches from England’s top division but their contract was terminated at the end of last season, with games moving to internet service Tencent.
The 20 top-flight clubs had to pay £330m in rebates to some of the league’s broadcast partners because of the three-month suspension to the 2019-20 season amid the coronavirus lockdown.
However, Chinese rights holder PPLive failed to reach a settlement with the Premier League and they have now filed a claim at the High Court in London.
They say there was a ‘fundamental change’ to the competition when it resumed in June, including empty stadiums, which caused ‘substantial losses’ to them.
PPLive claim they received ‘less than a third of the value of this contract but paid half the money for it’.
A statement by the broadcaster issued to the FT read: ‘The Premier League seems to have adopted a double standard and treated a domestic UK broadcaster differently from a Chinese broadcaster.
‘We have made our best efforts to reach a compromise but we have been left with no choice but to take legal action.’
They added that attempts to renegotiate their contract in June only led to Premier League ‘demands’ they continued to pay instalments for future matches.
PPLive wish to claim the £85m paid for matches that were not broadcast plus interest and damages. They could also seek to reclaim the £154m instalment that was due in March last year.
©Daily Mail