Three-year deal for airing soccer games from 2016 season may be worth $400 million Cheap New Balance 574 Womens , say experts


LeTV Sports, the sports arm of China's biggest online video company LeTV Holdings Co Ltd, has snapped up the Hong Kong rights to the English Premier League soccer games for the next three years starting 2016, as part of its efforts to bring in new technology and securing a number of exclusive television properties.


Though LeTV did not disclose the exact terms of the agreement at a news conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday, industry sources said it could be as high as $400 million-plus for the three years, more than double what the current rights holder PCCW's Now TV paid for a similar three-year deal.


Beijing-based LeTV is aggressively expanding into the Hong Kong pay TV market Cheap New Balance 574 Mens , which has been dominated until recently by Now TV and i-Cable.


Cheng Yizhong, the newly appointed CEO of LeTV Sports in Hong Kong, said that LeTV will also webcast some Premier League matches in ultra high-definition quality during the 2016-17 season.


LeTV, which started out as an online video platform, has since evolved into a smart TV maker and diversified into segments such as smart bicycles, vehicles and smart phones.


Having evolved from a page on the Leshi movie and TV site letv in 2012 into a separate entity streaming live sports events Cheap New Balance 574 Palm Springs , including National Basketball Association and National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball games from the United States, LeTV Sports is now shifting toward an all-round sports media business.


Acquiring the broadcast and media rights for exclusive sports events seems to be the way ahead for LeTV in what is otherwise a highly competitive market. However, it will face stiff competition from similar services owned by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Tencent Holdings Ltd and Dalian Wanda Group Co.


In January this year, Tencent beat LeTV Sports with $500 million for the rights to broadcast NBA games in the Chinese mainland for the next five seasons, despite LeTV Sports offering $600 million.


As one of China's fastest-growing and most acquisitive video-streaming startups Cheap New Balance 574 Sweatshirt , LeTV Sports' merry-go-round to beef up its presence as an all-round events rights holder is mind-blowing.


As of July this year, it is reported to have handled broadcast and media rights for as many as 200 events and nearly 10,000 matches for live broadcast, ranging from golf's US Open, cycling's Tour de France, and three years of tennis' Wimbledon Championships to the Boston and New York marathons Cheap New Balance 574 Outside In , and Shenzhen International Marathon.


At the same time, the company also needs huge cash flows to pursue its sports ambitions. In May this year, it raised 800 million yuan ($125.5 million) as funding from Wanda Investment, the venture capital fund supported by Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin, and Alibaba's Jack Ma-backed Yunfeng Capital, valuing the video-streaming business at 2.8 billion yuan and setting a record for fundraising in the Chinese sports industry.


Huang Jinyang Cheap New Balance 574 Island , an EPL viewer in Shanghai, believes the emergence of a new player and distributor like LeTV Sports in the TV market is a good thing as it allows content owners to distribute to a mass audience without huge investments on cable TV networks.


"The broader picture may not be very clear so far, but there is a possibility that customers could actually benefit from the latest deal," said Huang.


LONDON, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Britain on Tuesday urged the international community to commit more support to help alleviate the crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR), ahead of an incoming EU-Africa Summit in Brussels to discuss the conflict.


Describing the situation in the CAR as "ever more desperate" Cheap New Balance 574 Outdoor , British International Development Minister Lynne Featherstone urged that "the international community must do more to help the men, women and children affected."


Britain will provide seeds, farming tools and protection for people affected by the crisis, the British Department for International Development (DFID) announced Tuesday.


The DFID pledged a new aid package of 6 million pounds (9.96 million U.S. dollars) to bring Britain's total direct contribution to 18 million pounds in 2014, in addition to funds committed through the EU and the UN, the DIFD said.


Four million pounds of the funding will be given to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for seeds and tools to boost agricultural production and address the hunger crisis across the CAR during its planting season between March and May.


The remaining two million pounds will go to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to track and report back on the communities at imminent risk of violence and exploitation Cheap New Balance 574 Retro , including protecting women and girls from sexual violence, according to the DFID.


UN statistics showed that the violence in the CAR led to 290,000 people fleeing to neighboring countries, and the number of internally displaced people (IDP) in the crisis-torn African country reached an extremely high number of 650,000, including 232 Cheap New Balance 574 Floral ,000 IDPs in Bangui, the capital, alone.


Britain's new funding package came days before the EU-Africa Summit in Brussels on April 2-3. (1 pound = 1.66 U.S. dollars)

Visitors look out over Guanabara Bay, home of the 2016 Summer Olympics sailing events, as they stand atop Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Cheap New Balance 574 Classic , Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016. (AP PhotoDavid Goldman)

RIO DE JANEIRO — Right after getting off the plane, sweat beads will start to gather on your forehead. That's just Rio de Janeiro's ever-present humidity saying "hello."