The Premier League has signed its richest TV deal outside the UK, cashing in on the boom in the sport in China by signing a three-year deal worth $700m (£564m).



The contract, for three years from 2019-20, is with digital broadcaster PPTV, a division of Suning Holdings, and is understood to be worth almost 12 times the existing deal of around $60m over three years with Super Sport Media Group.

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Earlier this year, Suning bought a majority stake in Italian giants Internazionale amid an ongoing boom in football investment from China. Both at home and abroad, Chinese interests have invested in the sport as part of a drive by president Xi Jinping to build a “sports economy” built around football.

In taking the unusual step of negotiating a new three-year deal during the first year of the current three-year cycle in both China and the US, the Premier League has already guaranteed $1.2bn in income for its next rights period from 2019-20 to 2021-22.

The unprecedented spending spree in China has led to the Premier League’s biggest overseas deal, topping the $500m that NBC agreed to pay to extend its contract to show the league in the US from 2019-20 to 2021-22.

It also means that the Premier League has two of the biggest markets in the world tied up until 2021-22. Under its existing deals, the Premier League already brings in an estimated £8.3bn over three seasons, including £5.5bn in domestic contracts.

The Premier League shifted strategy in China around a decade ago following an ill-fated deal with a pay TV operator that saw it lose ground to other leagues and other sports, with free to air reach being prioritised over income.

With its new deal, it will hope to balance both. It is understood to include both free to air and regional TV elements, while also allowing a large number of matches to be parcelled up into subscription packages according to PPTV’s wishes.

The news will also come as a tonic to Premier League executives in the wake of a wave of speculation over the cause of a dip in viewing figures in the UK and the US, and a reminder of its commercial pre-eminence over other leagues around the world.

PPTV, a video-streaming website, paid $270m last year for the exclusive media rights to the Spanish soccer league La Liga.

The long-term contract will also give certainty to clubs and is the latest indication that the huge growth in overseas TV income, which has gone from zero to almost £3bn over the past 24 years, has not yet hit a ceiling.