SINGAPORE, March 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Sportel Asia 2016, the four-day global sport IP summit meeting, is taking place in Singapore this week. Tencent Sports, which has frequently showed at various sports exhibitions, including Sports Matters in Singapore, Soccerex in Manchester, England and Sportel Monaco last year, will be a key exhibitor at Sportel Asia this year as China's leading Internet company. Tencent will use the summit meeting as an opportunity to showcase the results of its NBA partnership to industry elites and global sports IP holders.
Tencent Sports is the exclusive official digital partner for the NBA in China, as well as ESPN's exclusive Internet partner in China. The internet company has proven to the industry and users value in Tencent Sports reputation, but also greatly enhanced the influence and commercial value of NBA in mainland China.
Sportel was founded in 1990 and is the most influential global sports IP summit meeting worldwide. Each year, sports industry elites around the world join to explore partnership opportunities, and discuss the future of the sports industry. As one of the biggest Internet companies in China, Tencent was invited to take part in 2016 Sportel Asia in Singapore to engage with international media and IP holders to show its abundant product lineup at its advanced digital booth.
"NBA is the most important IP for Tencent right now. During the 2015/2016 season, over 5 billion viewers watched NBA matches. The popularity has reached such levels that we have seen over 80 million core NBA users in China watch NBA matches since the start of the 2015/2016 season. These were the highest viewership figures during the NBA's 30 years in China. In total, Tencent has viewing figures of over 212 million people from October 2015 until January 2016," said Echo Yang, the director of Business Development and Cooperation, Tencent Sports.
"Through our partnership with the NBA, we have already enriched its content offering and built complete content products, such as live broadcasting, star-interviews and community interaction, with the aim to provide more touch points to consumers, and increase its popularity in China."
Tencent has particularly focused on live game broadcasting and viewer-experience improvements. Tencent has invested in its live game broadcasting and viewer-experience offerings. The company has spent almost 100 million RMB (over S$21 million) to create a studio and import new technology and equipment to improve the viewing experience.
Tencent has also signed 15 famous sports commentators, and a number of entertainment celebrities, such as Kris Wu and Yuan Hong, to provide in studio commentary and analysis.
In addition, Tencent has also introduced multiple angles from which viewers can choose to watch the game. These include, from both sides of the basketball court or even from the courtside VIP seats.
Tencent's intensive operation for NBA sports IP has achieved strong recognition within the industry. NBA Commissioner, Mr. Adam Sliver, praised Tencent's relay quality as the "highest quality I have seen anywhere in the world."
More than 6.4 million users watched the first live NBA Game in China through Tencent Sports. Between October 11, 2015 and October 14, 2015, over 200 million people watched NBA matches in China.
Tencent is also utilizing it resource advantage to develop content products and social community interaction. Tencent Sports has already planned 10 NBA relevant in-house programmes, including "Miracles of the NBA", "Rise Beyond", "Basketball Star Podcast" and "A Tale of the City".
Tencent Sports is also enriching and improving its sports community's construction and operation in order to develop online conversations between fans and between fans and the sports stars. During the period of 2016, NBA All-Star Game, a single live broadcast post on Tencent Sports community received 450,000 comments, which proves Tencent's strong social DNA advantage.
"The fragmentation and socialization of the sports industry is an inevitable trend for the future. Diverse channels have created more dimensions to connect with consumers which has led to an increase in community interaction. In addition, celebrity and cross-over topics between sports and entertainment have expanded the degree of user attention. Only through multi-dimensional operation, the value of particular IP can be effectively amplified eventually", said by Echo Yang.
Since 2015, Tencent Sports has seen rapid growth. Tencent has not only partnered with big sporting events, such as NBA, FA Premier League, German Bundesliga, UEFA and NFL, but it has also achieved a strategic partnership with ESPN as its exclusive content partner in mainland China.
About Tencent Sports
Tencent uses technology to enrich the lives of Internet users. Every day, hundreds of millions of people communicate, share experiences, consume information and seek entertainment through our integrated platforms. Tencent's diversified services include QQ and Weixin/WeChat for communications; Qzone for social networking; QQ Game Platform for online games; QQ.com and Tencent News for information, and Tencent Video for premium video content.
Tencent was founded in Shenzhen in 1998 and went public on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2004. The Company is one of the 50 constituent stocks of the Hang Seng Index. Tencent seeks to evolve with the Internet by investing in innovation, providing a hospitable environment for partners, and staying close to users.
