BEIJING AND NEW YORK, Jan. 29,
2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Basketball
Association (NBA) and Tencent
Holdings Limited ("Tencent", HKSE:
0700), a leading provider of comprehensive Internet services in
China, today announced a five-year
expansion of their partnership that will create the league's
largest international digital partnership. The new partnership will
be effective on July 1, 2015.
As the Exclusive Official Digital Partner of the NBA in
China, Tencent will feature a record number of live NBA
games and deliver enhanced original NBA programming and highlights,
including NBA preseason and regular-season games, NBA All-Star, the
NBA Playoffs, The Finals, NBA Summer League and the NBA
Draftthrough personal computers system and mobile devices. NBA live
games and content will be available for fans to access through
Tencent's NBA sections on QQ.com, v.QQ.com, QQ and Mobile QQ,
Qzone, Weixin, Tencent Video app, and
Tencent News app.
Tencent and the NBA will launch
the first-ever NBA LEAGUE PASS offering in China, providing fans with access to a full
season of live and on-demand NBA games online and via mobile
devices.
"The NBA represents both a widely-followed sport and an active
healthy way of life in China,"
said Martin Lau, President of
Tencent. "This multi-year agreement
enables us to bring substantially more NBA games and content to
consumers than has ever been available in the past, and we look
forward to working with the NBA league, teams and players to
further enhance the sport's profile and popularity."
"NBA fans in China are among
the most passionate and knowledgeable basketball fans in the world,
and we are thrilled to expand our partnership with Tencent," said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. "Tencentis one of the most
innovative, leading brands in China,and their extensive reach will
give our fans unparalleled access to the league and its teams."
"This groundbreaking partnership will reach hundreds of millions
of daily users across Tencent," said
NBA China CEO David Shoemaker. "As
the popularity of the NBA continues to soar in China, our fans will receive unprecedented NBA
content, interactive gaming, customized communities, and
merchandise on QQ.com, Weixin, Tencent Video and News apps, and other
Tencent platforms throughout the
year."
Tencent and the NBA will also
jointly manage and operate the NBA's digital assets in China, including the official NBA online
destination NBA.com/China and sites for all 30 NBA teams, NBA
events and merchandise. Additionally, Tencent will launch the NBA Game Time
Application, featuring extensive video highlights, news and
statistics, providing fans with the most comprehensive access to
the NBA on mobile. Tencent will
further support the NBA in growing its social media presence on
Tencent platforms including Weixin,
QQ and Qzone, among others.
The NBA and Tencent will unveil
the NBA Community including an NBA dedicated gaming section within
the Tencent Games platform, a more
integrated social commerce platform, and a premium subscription
service offering registered users special access to NBA content on
Tencent. The NBA's partnership with
Tencent will also include the
development of NBA-themed interactive games, and the promotion of
existing NBA-licensed interactive games, designed for mobile
devices and distributed on Tencent's platforms. Additionally, NBA
ID, the league's loyalty program in China, will be integrated into the NBA
Community providing fans the opportunity to earn points for using
NBA services and redeem them for special privileges and
merchandise.
About the NBA
The NBA is a global sports and media business built around three
professional sports leagues: the National Basketball Association,
the Women's National Basketball Association, and the NBA
Development League. The league has established a major
international presence with offices in 13 markets worldwide, games
and programming in 215 countries and territories in 47 languages,
and NBA merchandise for sale in more than 125,000 stores in 100
countries on 6 continents. NBA rosters at the start of the 2014-15
season featured a record 101 international players from 37
countries and territories. NBA Digital's assets include NBA TV,
which is available in 60 million U.S. homes, and NBA.com, which
recorded 26.9 billion page views during the 2013-14 season, with
more than half of all visitors originating from outside of
North America. The NBA is the No.
1 professional sports league on social media, with more than 750
million likes and followers globally across all league, team, and
player platforms. Through NBA Cares, the league and its teams and
players have donated more than $242
million to charity, completed more than 3 million hours of
hands-on community service, and created more than 915 places where
kids and families can live, learn, or play.
About Tencent
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 ahospitable
environment for partners, and staying close to users.
For more information, please visit www.tencent.com/ir.
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SOURCE Tencent Holdings
Limited