The English Premier League has secured a new broadcast deal with Tencent in China, moving quickly to replace its previous $700m contract in the country that was abruptly ended in a dispute triggered by the pandemic.

English football’s top tier agreed the one-year digital streaming deal with the Chinese internet giant on Thursday, according to people familiar with the talks, after scrambling to find a new broadcast partner in the country over the past two weeks.

The first round of this season’s matches, which began on Saturday, had been taken off air in one of the competition’s largest television markets after the league terminated a three-year contract with PPTV, a streaming service owned by Chinese retail conglomerate Suning, that was due to expire in?2022.