The Premier League has canceled its contract with Chinese broadcasters PPTV, the league said in a statement on Thursday.

"The Premier League confirms that it has today terminated its agreements for Premier League coverage in China with its licensee in that territory. The Premier League will not be commenting further on the matter at this stage," the league said in a statement.

Digital broadcaster PPTV, a unit of Chinese retail giant Suning Holdings Co, signed an exclusive three-year contract with the English Premier League back in 2016 to broadcast live it's 2019 to 2022 season in the Chinese mainland and Macao.

The deal is worth a reported value of over 600 million U.S. dollars. 

In response, PPTV said in a statement that "We are very sorry that we cannot reach an agreement with the Premier League currently. Even though PPTV has overly pre-paid the rights fees, PPTV will terminate cooperation with the Premier League."

It also added that the global COVID-19 pandemic had posed many challenges, especially in copyright negotiations. After rounds of negotiations, there are still differences between PPTV and the Premier League.

The Premier League 2019-20 season was suspended in March and resumed in June due to the pandemic, and the new season is set to begin next Saturday.