From left, Chinese international Sun Jihai, his Manchester City Manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, PremierGoals Ltd CEO Henrik Barck and Sohu CFO Yu Chuyuan signal the cooperation of the two Websites in Shanghai yesterday. (Photo: Shanghai Daily)

    BEIJING, Nov. 14 — Chinese portal Sohu.com gained the rights to show match videos of 16 English football clubs on its site yesterday, banking that Chinese football fans’ enthusiasm for the English Premier League will boost its traffic and lure more advertisers.

    It marked the latest move by Sohu, the only official Website partner of 2008 Beijing Olympics, into sports content as it competes fiercely against rivals like Sina.com, but it may also push its overall advertising sales costs higher, analysts said.

    A Chinese Website for 16 clubs including Liverpool and Manchester City was launched yesterday in Shanghai by Sohu with its partner, PremierGoals Ltd, which has deals with 75 percent of the English Premier League clubs to distribute their match videos and pictures in China.

    The site, premiergoals.com, is produced by Sohu and also accessible on Sohu’s sports channel. The videos will be free and feature highlights of the matches and also delayed broadcasting of some entire matches. No financial terms were disclosed.

    Sina, China’s largest portal, has launched a paid on-air broadcasting service for English football fans in the country in August.

    Chinese football fans were deprived of the free telecast of the English Premier League’s matches this year as a Guangzhou-Province based TV company bought out the exclusive rights and offer the matches only to a paid audience.

    ”It’s a long-term investment, and we believe the copyright and exclusive videos can help us gain more users for Sohu as a whole, and eventually pay back in terms of advertisement spending from our customers who recognize our Website’s value,” said Ao Ming, director of Sohu sports channel.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)