鸿俊专栏：天空体育买中超看中了什么，谁会在英国看中超？

2016-11-11职业体育Ken Grant

未命名 -1.jpg

中超赛场终落幕，回顾整个赛季，首先想到的便是80亿的版权，千万欧元的外援，超溢价的户口本，不断下课的名帅，法英转播中超等等，不可否认的是中超的影响力更大了，中超赛场的一举一动都受到世界足坛的关注。

我们采访了在中国从事体育产业5年的英国体育业内人士Ken Grant 鸿俊先生，看看他对中超商业发展的独到见解。

Q1：应该如何来分析天空体育转播中超的背景原因？天空电视台是出于怎样的考虑？是否是为了吸引中国投资？

KEN：天空体育投资购买中超的电视版权，可能不只是这一个赛季的事，不过这并不是说中超突然间在天空体育的用户中变得有多火爆，而是因为全世界的足球迷很想看一看中超究竟是什么样子，为什么那些大牌球星选择去中国踢球。我个人认为，天空体育之所以愿意花钱购买中超版权是出于一种战略上的选择，是为了确保在其他转播商之前下手，以防万一在未来中超真的变的流行起来而他们没有机会染指。

实际上，中超的比赛转播是直接播出的，这意味着天空体育仅仅是把他们接收的内容呈现出来，没有安排专家进行解说或评论。我觉得这暗示了天空体育对中超的收视率并没有足够的信心，但正像我之前说过的，他们就是感觉他们需要买下中超版权。

与全世界转播商一样，天空体育对内容感兴趣，购买中超版权能填补播出节目单，还有潜在的可能会带来更多来自中国的广告赞助。中超版权值不值这个价格，这可能很难评价，但我感觉这笔版权交易是一桩“赔本赚吆喝”的买卖，天空体育对这笔投资能带来回报没有太多期待。着只有时间才能告诉我们答案了。

Q2：按照您了解到的信息，天空体育（ 2016后11轮+2017+2018赛季）的中超转播合同价值多少钱？

KEN：很遗憾，我也不知道天空体育在这笔版权交易中花了多少钱，但我猜可能不会花的太多。正如我之前提到的原因，天空体育不会为中超版权给出过高的价格，对于转播商来说中超版权的真实价值确实是比较小的。情况很有可能是，中超方面的顾问建议他们与天空体育合作，拿出转播版权以在国际上打造中超的品牌，这样一来，一家非中国的转播商就很可能不会为中超投入过多的资金，因为实事求是地说，中超品牌的变现能力是很小的。

我推测，这笔交易对中超和天空体育来说是双赢的，是一项即基于商业又基于政治的合作。

Q3：中超的电视制作品质，跟天空体育转播的其他联赛相比，有多大差距？

KEN：天空体育是直接将中超的电视信号转播出去的，因此转播质量直接取决于中超的电视信号制作团队。

与天空体育转播的英超电视信号相比，中超的电视信号在镜头数量和与观众的互动上明显质量要低一些，可能与天空体育自己制作的其他国际联赛转播水平差不多，但还是比不上德国和西班牙的比赛电视转播。

天空体育的观众看到的中超，与我们在中国的电视和网络上看到的是完全一样的。

Q4：订阅中超转播的英国家庭多么？英国球迷又是如何看待天空体育转播中超的？

KEN：实事求是的讲，中超的比赛在天空体育的频道中只是作为一个填缺补漏的存在，而且由于时差问题，中超比赛的时间正是大部分球迷睡觉的时间。在这个阶段，我不认为国际球迷对中超有很大的期待或很深的了解，他们可能会出于好奇去收看中超比赛，但不会是中超某一球队或中超足球风格的粉丝。

可能会有一些中国学生和工作者希望能在欧洲看到家乡球队的比赛，但还是要提到时差的问题，这对收视率可没有任何帮助。像我之前所说，中超建立品牌的机会要比天空体育在商业上的机会要大得多。

Q5：2015年，中超版权收入不到8000万元人民币。但是从2016-2020年，中超的媒体版权却高达5年80亿人民币。对此，应该怎么解读？

KEN：我认为中超版权费的巨大增长更多是由文化驱动而非由商业驱动。足球是一种“娱乐”，能够吸引观众的有趣的东西越多，它就越值钱。中超的足球是不是足够有趣，这对每个人都是个问题，而答案只有“是”或“否”两种。我猜大多数观众的答案不会是“是”，所以天空体育的大笔资金不是用来保证中超现在的娱乐性，而是可能为了几年之后的将来中超能够产生娱乐性。

放眼全球，电视转播商投资和竞标电视版权，基于的是他们认为哪个版权更值钱，这是因为实际上没有一种真正科学的方法去衡量版权的价值。电视转播商还会为了确保将某项版权收入囊中而挥洒重金，以防其他竞争对手得到它们，这就是为什么会有版权争夺战。从个人角度，我认为天空体育为中超版权开出的价钱与其真实价值完全不成比例，但是在中国，有些时候金融常识是抵不过情感驱动的。看看最近中国球队为那些海外球员开出的巨额转会费和薪金吧。

Q6：这2年，中超在引进高水平外援方面投入巨资，可是本国足球水平依然很低，世预赛亚洲区12强赛4场才拿了一分，怎么看这个现象？

KEN：很遗憾地讲，中超花在外国球员身上的钱并没有使中国足球产生实质性的进展，这是因为文化层面和教练方面的原因。除非中国的教练系统发生彻底的改变，像人们经常说的，“如果你一直重复过去做过的事情，那么你将只会获得已经拥有的东西。”中国教练们教的东西就是他们一直以来学到的东西，而这些东西是需要改变的。

在一个竞争的环境，比如说中超的比赛中，如果球员没有付出足够的努力去重新学习一些东西，那么无论他们在训练中被怎样指导，一旦到了球场上他们就只能靠本能去踢球。而且，中国的文化习惯是先考虑自己再考虑他人，这可能意味着很难培养出团队思考和团队行动。中超球队往往过于依赖外援创造进攻机会和进球，那么当国家队完全由中国自己的球员组成时，球队里没有了领袖，只是这个国家的11个个体在场上踢球，不是一支球队。

里皮在恒大的执教非常成功，这可能是由于他拥有很好的外援，能够创造出比其他中超球队更好的团队。但在国家队层面，他的挑战变成了中国的文化和球员们相同的态度。如果他能把那些渴望赢球充满激情的球员聚集在一起，他是有可能成功的，但我个人认为他成功的机会只有50%。只有时间才能告诉我们答案，也许他今天还是英雄，明天就全部清零。

Q7：中超如果要真正的全球化，必须做好哪几方面？

KEN：在大多数行业中光靠金钱是买不到地位的，足球行业也是如此。关键的是要传递出品质和娱乐性，作为回报你会获得这个行业里的最佳天赋。过去1年或过去的18个月来，中超用高昂的球员转会费吸引了全世界的目光，但并没有为自己的品牌建立良好的声誉。

作为一个品牌，中超需要做的与其它行业做过的一样，就是在中国之外建立一个有品质、有娱乐性的形象，然后在此基础之上进行发展。无论是球场上还是球场外，中超都面临很大的挑战，它需要面对那些非常完善的竞争对手，比如英超、德甲、意甲，中国足球必须要具有娱乐性。

很多年前，中国有一些球员在几家欧洲优秀的俱乐部踢球，由于他们的存在，中国足球的形象进入了欧洲球迷的视线。如今，欧洲已经没有比较出名的中国球员，用他们优秀的个人素质“推销”中国足球，而这正是中超所需要的。中超必须要在中国以及世界投入资金和大量时间打造品牌，这个过程不会很快，需要制定策略，并且要正确地实施策略以达到想要的结果。

如果中超想要成为一项全球足球资产，那么它必须要想一个全球品牌一样思考和行动，而这和某家中国俱乐部在球员身上花多少钱没有直接联系，这关乎观念的发展和转变。

英文原文：

Q1：How to analysis of the background and the reasons for SKY purchase the rights to broadcast CSL? What is SKY’s purpose? Is it to attract Chinese investment?

KEN: The sky investment in the CSL TV rights, maybe for more than one reason, it's not because the CSL has suddenly become famous to the Sky viewers but could be because international football fans want to see what the CSL is like and why some big name player have chosen to come to play in China. I personally also think that their decision to pay for the CSL rights is a tactical decision to ensure that they have them before any other broadcaster which will protect them just in case the CSL really does become popular.

In fact, the CSL matches are broadcast straight to air, which means they are just shown as they are received with no experts commentating or giving their opinions on the matches. This indicates to me that Sky aren't that confident many people will watch them, but as I have already said, they feel they should have these rights.

Like all broadcasters around the world, Sky are interested in content, and the CSL rights fill the schedule and may potentially bring additional Chinese sponsorship in the form of advertising to the broadcaster. Whether they were worth the money that they cost will be very difficult to assess, my feeling is that these rights are what in English we call 'a loss leader' and they are there as an investment made with little expectation of them bringing a return. Only time will tell.

Q2：According to the information you know, how much is the CSL broadcast contract cost (the last 11 games of 2016 season + 2017 season + 2018 season)?

KEN: Unfortunately I don't know what Sky paid for these rights, but my guess would be that the cost was not very high. Sky wouldn't overpay for CSL rights because as I pointed out earlier, the real value of them to the broadcaster is realistically small. It's quite possible that the advisors to the CSL suggested to them that they approach Sky and offer the rights as a means of building the CSL brand internationally and made it clear that a non-Chinese broadcaster was unlikely to pay huge amounts of money for the rights as the CSL honestly has little brand value to monetize.

I suspects, this was a win-win for the CSL and Sky and an agreement suited both on a commercial/political basis.

Q3：How much difference is the TV broadcast production quality of CSL compared to sky when it broadcasting other leagues?

KEN: Sky takes the CSL broadcasts directly and puts them on air, therefore the quality is whatever is set by the CSL production team.

Compared to an EPL match broadcast by Sky, the CSL quality is clearly lower in terms of camera numbers and viewer interaction, probably no different to the process when Sky works with other international leagues, although those in Germany or Spain may have a higher quality of TV production.

Sky viewers will see exactly what we see on TV or the Internet in China.

Q4：How many people in UK subscribe to watch CSL? What’s the UK football fans view about sky broadcasting CSL?

KEN: To be honest, the CSL coverage is a filler on one of the Sky channels and due to time differences is likely to be shown when most fans are sleeping. I don't think at this stage, international football fans have a great deal of expectation or knowledge about the CSL so they may watch out of curiosity, but not because they are fans of the clubs or the style of play.

There may be Chinese students and workers based in Europe who want to watch their local teams play, but again the time difference may not help the viewing figures. As I mentioned before, this is a brand building opportunity for the CSL rather than a commercial opportunity for Sky.

Q5：In 2015, the revenue of CSL TV rights is less than 80 million RMB, but from 2016-2020, the right increased to 8 billion RMB for 5 years. How to interpret this?

KEN: The huge increase in TV rights money for the CSL is very much a cultural decision rather than an economic one, I feel. Football is 'entertainment' and the more entertaining something is in terms of attracting an audience the more money it is argued to be worth. Is CSL football entertaining is a question for every individual and it is a yes or no answer. I suspect most viewers would not say yes and so the big money was not paid to secure entertainment now, but perhaps in the hope of entertainment in a few years.

Around the globe, TV broadcasters bid and pay for TV rights based on what they think the value is because there is not a real science to measuring this. They also make big offers to secure the rights to something to prevent others from having them which is why there are bidding wars. Personally, I consider the money paid for the CSL rights to be completely disproportionate to their value, but in China sometimes financial common sense is overridden by emotional drive; just look at the transfer fees and salaries being paid in recent times to some overseas players.

Q6：In the last 2 years, CSL clubs spent huge amount of money bringing foreign players, but the level of local football is still very poor. In the FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers (totally 12 teams) China only got 1 point after 4 matches, how to look at this phenomenon?

KEN: Unfortunately, the money the CSL is spending on foreign players does not improve the quality of Chinese football because this is a cultural and coaching problem. Until the coaching systems change from those of the past to something completely new, as the saying goes 'if you keep on doing what you always so, you'll get what you always got'. Chinese coaches teach the way they were taught and this needs to change.

In a competitive situation like a CSL match, players revert to what comes naturally to them no matter what they were told in training if they haven't worked hard enough to relearn something. And also in China the cultural habit of thinking of oneself first and others afterwards, if at all means that team thinking and acting fails to happen. CSL teams often rely too much on foreign players to create good play and to score goals which means when you have a national team made up of only Chinese players, there are no leaders and the country has 11 individuals on the pitch and not one team.

Lippi has been very successful at Evergrande perhaps because he has had good foreign players to create a better functioning team and other CSL clubs, but his challenge with the national squad will be cultural and equally player attitude. If he can bring together players who want to win and have passion, he maybe successful but personally I think his chances of success are 50/50. Only time will tell; he could go from hero to zero very quickly!

Q7：If the CSL want a real globalization, what must be done? In what kind of ways?

KEN: It is not possible to buy status in most industries and certainly not in football, it's about delivering quality and entertainment, which in return attract the best talents to that business. The CSL is known globally for the massive transfer fee's it has paid for player in the past year or 18 months and not for being a good reputable football brand in its own rights.

As a brand, the CSL needs to do what any other business has to do which is to establish its name outside China for quality and entertainment, and then build on this. It has many challenges both on and off the pitch; it is competing with some very well established competitors in terms of the EPL, Bundesliga, La Liga and Chinese football has to be entertaining on the pitch to name just two things.

Many years ago, there were a small number of Chinese players playing for good clubs in Europe, and due to this, the profile of Chinese football rose in the eyes of fans there. Today there are no notable players with good personalities to 'sell' Chinese football and the CSL needs them. The league must invest in brand building in China and internationally over some long period of time, nothing will happen quickly, it needs a strategy and it must follow that strategy correctly in order to see positive results.

If the CSL wants to become a global football asset it has to think and act like and international brand, and this is not directly linked to how much money a club pays for a player, it's about developing and changing perceptions.