Chinese pro soccer channel debuts

The Chinese soccer channel realized its application on satellite TV Thursday, as the first professional football channel to promote Chinese soccer reform and development.

The soccer channel is expected to help form a fair and competitive sports television market, which can promote the value of Chinese sports copyright.

For decades, CCTV-5, also known as the Sports Channel, was the main sports broadcaster in China and the only national sports channel authorized by national policy. It could buy broadcast rights for competitions at low copyright price but sell expensive advertisements due to exclusive rights.

Under this system, many sports events needed to pay to get on the channel without getting the copyright fee.

The soccer channel originated from the Inner Mongolia Football Channel (IMFC) and debuted in March 2016. In August 2017, IMFC coverage was expanded from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region to the whole country.

Inner Mongolia autonomous region was named as the first pilot province for soccer reform and development in China in September 2014, as well as the only pilot province, considering facts as youth sports basics, individuals' physical conditions and outdoor sports areas.

The soccer channel presently includes the daily sports news program, the weekly soccer entertainment analysis program, and the soccer character story special. The channel will launch a series of programs for the 2018 World Cup.