China: Internet group Tencent becomes exclusive digital partner of the NBA, for €612m for 2015-2020

Tencent Holdings Limited, a Chinese Internet services group, extended its partnership with the NBA, becoming the exclusive digital partner of the North American professional basketball league in China, on 30/01/2015. The agreement takes effect on 01/07/2015 and runs until 30/06/2020. The deal represents "the league's largest international digital partnership," said the NBA. The US economic media agency Bloomberg estimated the value of the deal at $700m (€612m on 04/02/2015) over the five years of the contract ($140m per season, €122.4m).

The partnership is mainly in regards to the broadcast, both live and replays, of NBA matches (pre-season, regular season, All-Star Game, play-offs, finals), highlights of these matches, and other NBA content (dedicated programs, pre-season draft), on Tencent's websites, social networks and mobile applications. On these platforms, Tencent will market the "NBA League Pass", a live and on-demand pay streaming service for all NBA games "for the first time in China".