Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings announced Wednesday it will team up with global sports content provider ESPN, Inc, with the aim of developing a professional digital platform for sports.
Having become the digital partner of the National Basketball Association (NBA) on January 29, Tencent will further cooperate with ESPN in its sporting-event content development, analysts noted.
ESPN's content will be localized and exclusively distributed and promoted by Tencent's digital platforms in China, -according to an announcement Tencent sent to the Global Times Wednesday.
Tencent's live sports coverage and digital products in China will feature exclusive Chinese-language ESPN content, which will be a combination of original and localized content, initially focused on the NBA and international soccer, the announcement said.
There is the potential to expand to other sports over the course of the agreement, it noted.
Beginning with the 2016 NBA Playoffs, ESPN experts will be on-site at five games per week to provide exclusive, live -Chinese-language analysis as part of Tencent's NBA coverage, the announcement said.
Tencent will also license from ESPN the exclusive, live digital rights in the Chinese mainland to the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Tournament, more than 100 regular season college basketball games and the X Games.
"The large user base of the Chinese Internet giant has become the company's major advantage, which will also help ESPN promote its own sports events in China," Zhang Qing, CEO of Beijing Key-Solution Sports Consulting Co, told the Global Times Wednesday.
The number of active users on Tencent's instant messaging service platform QQ stood at 860 million, up about 5 percent year-on-year, according to Tencent's financial report for the third quarter of 2015, released on November 10, 2015.
The number of users on WeChat, the company's free messaging and calling app, totaled 650 million, up 39 percent.
ESPN, as a leading content provider, has its own media platforms as well as -offline sports events, which will help Tencent gain experience in operating online sports events through such channels as content marketing and distribution, Zhang noted.
While major Internet companies such as Alibaba Group Holding and Le Holdings (Beijing) Co, or popularly known as Letv, have been exploring sports-event business opportunities, "it is still too early to tell which company is now in a dominant position," said Jiang Qian, an industry analyst at Beijing-based -market research firm Analysys International.
Acquiring broadcast and media rights to major sports events, purchasing stakes in soccer clubs, and setting up sports funds can boost the development of the domestic sports industry.
These moves are in line with the government's initiative to expand the value of the sector to 5 trillion yuan ($800 billion) by 2025, Jiang told the Global Times Wednesday. "Some U.S.-oriented events may not be attractive to Chinese viewers."
Still, Tencent needs to be cautious about localizing the content of sports events, -Jiang said.
"Programs such as sports talk shows and debate programs may generate more profits," she noted.
