China is the world's biggest Premier League fan, Charlie Rose stripped of Walter Cronkite award, NAB 2017: Valossa collaborates with Yle on AI-based broadcast metadata. Manchester City v Liverpool Keep abreast of significant corporate, financial and political developments around the world. You can still enjoy your subscription until the end of your current billing period. How Big a Threat is China to European Football and The Premier MOTD2 highlights of an amazing weekend of goals clocked in with an audience of 2.8 to 4.1 million. In China, the beautiful game appears primarily to be a Machiavellian tool of self-furtherment. Anyway, they were at it again this week with a story in The Independent, telling us in a big headline: Manchester United and Liverpool defeats helped Sky Sports to its highest ever viewership., Heavy defeats for two of the Premier Leagues big-hitters drew a peak audience of 3.3m as 14m viewers tuned in at the weekend with fans continuing to be locked out of sporting events.. That said, Chinese owners are pioneering in the sheer amount they are willing to spend. However, the number of viewers on television at home have also dropped, meaning broadcasters globally will understandably be cautious when it comes to renewing their deals next time around. Read about our approach to external linking. You only have access to basic statistics. Exclusive: Champions League viewing figures revealed and impact You can change your cookie settings at any time but parts of our site will not function correctly without them. Since then, things have been ramped up several notches. For a full comparison of Standard and Premium Digital, click here. The resulting hype for the final was intense, with an estimated global audience of between 380 and 400 million viewers, making it almost twice as big as the Super Bowl. Initially, it is a case of timing, and secondly, it is the intrinsic value of the product. "One main driver of the rise was the switch of the League's broadcast rights in China from pay TV over to terrestrial coverage. Norfolk was second and Cincinnati was third. suffer a 10.3 per cent year-over-year (YoY) fall, most-watched Premier League final day on record. League grows audience abroad with English social Even with a relatively limited use of the imagination, it is not hard to see how that could potentially jeopardise the financial security of Europe's top domestic divisions. While conditions were dire, the EPL managers were under pressure to feed the furore that surrounds their teams in Asia and to deliver to the public the star names the people crave. They'll see some of the world's best talent in thrilling matches played at packed stadiums.". Beloved as football is in Europe, our domestic leagues are not supported by the limitless economic resources of a global superpower. English Premier League viewing figures | Sporteology External Link, Be wary of future Brighton rotation in FPL, FPL player price changes - rises, falls and top transfers for Gameweek 35, Why Leicester v Everton is a must-win for both teams, Away Fan Guide: Leicester City In the following months, Chinese clubs signed Gervinho, Demba Ba, Graziano Pelle, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Hulk, Ramires and Jackson Martinez, to name but a few. One only needs to look to Major League Soccer, the J-League, the A-League, the historical NASL, and various extravagant vanity projects in the Middle East to see that attempting to compete with the grand old clubs of Europe, whether directly or on a limited scale, is more often than not a fruitless endeavour. There has been much talk of the broadcasting bubble finally bursting and, while that might well be a premature surmise, there's a sense in which the upwards spiral of television money is no longer guaranteed. The Premier League sides fuelling of the Asian passionthe preseason tours and talk of a 39th fixtureis an important side of this mutually beneficial triangle. 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Amongst the so-called Big-Five leagues in Europe, which include the top-tier football leagues of England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France, the combined revenue of all Its without doubt a much worse version of football without the crowd providing an atmosphere. Likewise, Axel Witsel has apparently confirmed that he turned down Juve for the sake of Tianjin Quanjian. One only needs to look to the Teixeira deal to see how transfer costs are being forced ever upwards, while the power of agents, already an endemic problem in European football, will only increase as more cash changes hands. Pub figures are currently marginal for obvious reasons. Follow @Eddydove on Twitter to continue the dialogue. Why are we no longer surprised to see banks and banks of Tottenham fans in Hong Kong wearing their Lilywhite replica shirts and singing Ossies Dream just as they would on the Shelf at White Hart Lane? President Xi Jinping has sanctioned massive state spending at a grassroots level, while the Chinese Super League represents an attempt to furnish the country with a domestic division worthy of its name. The audience across Africa was 290m. There is a feeling that, no matter what happens, European domestic leagues will always sit astride the globe. There has been much talk of the broadcasting bubble finally Sky reportedly paid 4.2bn to gain For owners of Chinese Super League clubs, it represents a way to build up political links by actively participating in the government's plans. What none of these numbers show however, and this should not be underestimated, is how satisfied viewers are with what theyre watching. China factory activity cools in April as recovery challenges loom It is a product almost perfectly designed for consummation, appreciation and the subsequent retention of interest and support. Statista. Both Jan Vertonghen and Matija Nastasic face a race against time to be fit for the Prems opening weekendthe pair a legacy of the demands of the Barclays Asia Trophy, a preseason romp that saw Manchester City, Sunderland and Tottenham compete alongside South China Athletic Association. Some of the viewing figures for the lower-tier Premier League games were quite low. US media giant NBCs coverage of the 2021/22 Premier League was the second most-watched seasonof English soccers top flight in US television history, behind only 2015/16.