Taking dead aim at growing the game
Q: The NHL is the No 1 pro hockey league in the world but has yet to gain mainstream status in China. What do you think of that situation?
A: The sport is still in its early development period in China, but its popularity is growing rapidly ... especially among young people.
I’m confident hockey will get a major boost in the next few years thanks to China’s economic development and the increasing number of players and fans in this country.
Q: What is your expectation for Tencent’s five-year partnership deal with the NHL?
A: The NHL is one of the major sports leagues in North America and it has a huge fan base around the world. We hope to bring that hockey culture to China.
Also, Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games so it’s a great time to have a partnership with the NHL, which is the world’s best hockey league. We think our partnership will be a leading force in the development of winter sports in China.
Q: This partnership is the first of its kind between the NHL and a Chinese digital media company. Can you explain how the IP will be used in the future?
A: First, we will broadcast exclusive NHL games on various platforms like Tencent news, Tencent video and Tencent sports. Moreover, we will deepen the cooperation in offline activities, online games and online commercials with the NHL.
Compared to other IPs, the NHL has a greater potential in China and Tencent is looking to create more opportunities to make the sport more attractive.
Q: How do you expect of the deal to evolve over the next five years?
A: It’ s not just about making money or making Tencent more exclusive as a hockey platform in a short time. It’s a long-term partnership.
We know our government wants to get 300 million citizens involved in winter sports by the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and plans to encourage them by building more than 500 ice rinks and 240 ski slopes over the next six years. It’s great Tencent can be part of that as we are working with NHL to grow the sport step by step.
Q: Besides hockey, Tencent owns IPs of other winter sports. What is the incentive to invest so much in them?
A: Over the past few years Tencent has established deep cooperative ties with multiple winter games.
Since establishing a partnership with the ISU, we have acquired exclusive digital media rights of broadcasting the world short track speed skating championships, World Cup competition sand the Four Continents Championships. We also made a deal with the Kontinental Hockey League and have made inroads through the Olympics, FIFA World Cup and basketball. But we believe winter sports will be the most developed over the next few years, leading up to the 2022 Beijing Games.
We will dig deeper to present the value and influence of these sports.