The NFL said that it will stream games, including the Super Bowl, in China with Sina Weibo, a large social media platform.
Sina Weibo has already live streamed six regular season games over the past few weekends. It will also carry the final Sunday Night Football games and three playoff games in addition to the Super Bowl.
“Sina Weibo is an excellent partner for the NFL as we engage fans across the Chinese Mainland. We are excited about working with Sina Weibo to stream NFL games to millions of fans. We’re confident this will be a valuable long-term partnership for the NFL and our sponsors in China,” said Richard Young, NFL China Managing Director.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Sina Weibo has 132 million daily active users and 297 million monthly active users. On average, 100 million messages are posted each day on Sina Weibo.
“We are glad to launch this strategic partnership with the NFL,” said Zhang Zhe, head of Sina Weibo Sports. “We look forward to helping the NFL grow their Chinese market and explore more commercial opportunities, while also providing our Weibo users with a better opportunity to watch and quickly share LIVE games and highlights. We strongly believe that social media is a core platform to promote and consume domestic and international sports events. Sports + Social will become a key industry driver.”
In addition to streaming NFL games, Sina Weibo will have rights to non-game VOD clips, highlights and other NFL video content.
The NFL claims more than 1.5 million online viewers across China each week. The league also gets 5 million views of NFL clips in China.
