By Wu Jie

Beijing Television's (BTV) sports channel abruptly suspended its live World Cup broadcast Monday night to switch to the Wimbledon Championships in the wake of unresolved copyright disputes with China Central Television (CCTV).

BTV had been broadcasting the World Cup simultaneously with China Central Television (CCTV) since the football tournament began on June 11. According to a Legal Mirror report filed Tuesday, CCTV holds exclusive broadcasting right in the Chi-nese mainland but sold some rights to some local television stations.

"BTV has every right to air the World Cup," a BTV sports channel rep anonymously told the Global Times. "But as most are watching the tournament on CCTV, they take the lion's share of the total viewership. We're no match for them, so we figured why not switch to a renowned tennis game to provide the audience with more choices."

Another staff member at BTV sports told the Global Times under condition of anonymity that BTV has bought the broadcasting rights from CCTV. "But we haven't aired two games recently because we were told by CCTV that we weren't 'broadcasting appropriately'." The staff member refused to reveal whether or not BTV will resume World Cup broadcasts.

A Shanghai sports channel also abruptly stopped broadcasting the tournament Sunday, allegedly for the reason that they covered CCTV captions while airing the game.

Some Beijing footballs fans have said they feel that they didn't enjoy "Beijing-styled" World Cup commentary. The Legal Mirror reported that they believe there's nothing wrong with broadcasting the tournament with the CCTV captions intact.

CCTV reportedly spent 680 million yuan ($100 million) to secure exclusive 2010 and 2014 World Cup broadcasts along with other FIFA tournaments during the same time, according to Nanfang Daily.

CCTV will earn over 2 billion yuan ($294 million) from advertising during the World Cup, according to the business website cb.com.cn.