iQIYI and Super Sports align to create new joint venture in sports online broadcasting

Leading Chinese online streaming platform iQIYI has partnered with DDMC Group subsidiary, Super Sports, the Chinese sports content production and streaming company, to launch a new sports online broadcasting platform, iQIYI Sports. 

Four parties including the President of Super Sports Yu Lingxiao and Beijing Super Sports Huizhi Media Technology Company (registered by Yu Lingxiao and another person in July 2018), iQIYI and Super Sports, have set up a joint venture called Beijing Xin'ai Sport Media Technology Co., Ltd., to run iQIYI Sports. Beijing Xin’ai Sport Media Technology was registered on July 26, according to official enterprise registration information.

The existing Super Sports Media app and Super Sports streaming website have changed their names to "iQIYI Sports". The upgraded app will bring together soccer, tennis and golf coverage drawn from broadcasting agreements made by both iQIYI's sports platform and Super Sports Media, including coverage of the English Premier League, the UEFA Nations League, the Australian Open, the ATP Tour and the WTA Tour.

Existing membership of both Super Sports and iQIYI will receive full membership on the new app, according to the announcement by iQIYI. 

The DDMC Group’s announcement made on August 6 disclosed the amount and percentage of investments made by the four parties in this new joint venture. The largest investment was made by Super Sports (CNY42.5m, 42.5%), followed by iQIYI (CNY38.25m, 38.25%), Beijing Super Sports Huizhi Media Technology Company (CNY15m, 15%) and Yu Lingxiao (CNY4.25m, 4.25%). The total investment involved is CNY100m. 

The alignment has been generally considered as a move from both sides to strengthen their online sports broadcasting business by combining forces. It also raises discussions as to whether it is a sign that the three Chinese tech giants, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, have all fully stepped onto the battle field of sports media broadcasting in China, given that Baidu is the biggest stakeholder in iQIYI. 

Reference: Xinhua 

Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick