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, 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.