By Juro Osawa
Tencent Holdings Ltd. (0700.HK) said it has agreed to become The
National Basketball Association's exclusive online partner in
China, the latest in a series of alliances aimed at beefing up its
online offerings of entertainment for Chinese Internet users.
Tencent, a giant in online games and social networks in China,
said in a statement Friday that it will run live NBA matches and
other related programs on its websites and mobile apps such as QQ
and Weixin, which have hundreds of millions of users.
Tencent and NBA will also launch "League Pass," a paid service
that allows users to stream live a full season of games online, for
the first time in China, Tencent said.
Currently, there are multiple online channels for NBA games and
related programs in China. But the latest agreement will make
Tencent the only channel, the company said.
The new partnership with NBA will take effect July 1, Tencent
said. Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
The alliance with NBA is part of Tencent's broader efforts to
offer more entertainment programs to attract China's more than 600
million Internet users. Tencent's chief rivals, e-commerce company
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and search provider Baidu Inc., are also
trying to expand their online entertainment offerings.
Last month, Tencent announced a deal with Sony Music
Entertainment to exclusively manage the online distribution of the
Sony Corp. unit's vast music library in China. That followed
similar exclusive online distribution deals with Time Warner Inc.'s
HBO network and Warner Music Group in November.
Write to Juro Osawa at juro.osawa@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires