Tencent on the team to promote youth programs
The National Basketball Association and Tencent Holdings Limited, the exclusive official digital partner of the NBA in China, on Monday announced they will collaborate to promote the Jr. NBA and youth basketball participation in China.
The announcement builds on NBA China’s existing partnership with Tencent — the league’s largest international partnership — which allows Tencent to stream the entire season of live games and content on its platforms.
Throughout the year, Tencent will promote the Jr. NBA, the league’s global youth program, through WeSee and Qzone.
WeSee is a Tencent app that allows users to create and share short videos, while Qzone is one of China’s largest social-networking platforms.
As part of the deal, Tencent will live-stream the Jr. NBA World Championship, a tournament for 13- and 14-year-old boys’ and girls’ teams, with Chinese commentary.
Original Jr. NBA programming and content will be available, including via the official Qzone accounts for participating schools.
Tencent and the NBA will also bring current NBA players and retired legends to China to interact with fans at Jr. NBA events.
“We are thrilled to build on our existing partnership with Tencent and take our collaboration to the next level by offering fans extensive NBA content through Tencent’s strong social-networking platforms,” said NBA China CEO Derek Chang.
“Our partnership with Tencent has provided hundreds of millions of Chinese fans with the unprecedented opportunity to enjoy, interact and connect with the NBA, and we are excited to work with Tencent to grow the game in the years to come.”
Tencent vice-president Ross Liang was equally effusive.
“We look forward to working with the NBA to grow basketball participation in China,” said Liang.
“With the combined strength of Tencent and the NBA, we will provide WeSee users with more interesting and exclusive content, and promote the Jr. NBA through live-streaming of its games and events as part of our effort to contribute to youth development in China.”
In addition to extensive coverage of the Jr. NBA program, WeSee and Qzone will also become new destinations for fans in China to access NBA games and content.
Beginning with the upcoming season, WeSee and Qzone will deliver original NBA programming, highlights and one live game per week, including preseason and regular-season games, the All-Star showcase, the playoffs, the Finals, the NBA Summer League and the draft.
As the exclusive official digital partner of the NBA in China, Tencent live-streams an entire season of live games and content to fans on its platforms through free games and NBA League Pass, the NBA’s premier live-game subscription package.
Currently, live NBA games and related content are available for fans to view through Tencent’s NBA sections on QQ.com, v.QQ.com, Tencent Video app and Tencent News app.