NBA AND TENCENT TO PROMOTE JR. NBA AND YOUTH BASKETBALL PARTICIPATION IN CHINA

- Tencent’s WeSee and Qzone To Provide Extensive Coverage 

of Jr. NBA Events in China and the U.S. -  

- Live NBA Games and Highlights Will be Available on WeSee and Qzone for the First Time - 

SHENZHEN, Oct. 9, 2018 – The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Tencent Holdings Limited (“Tencent”, HKSE: 0700), the Exclusive Official Digital Partner of the NBA in China, announced that they will collaborate to promote the Jr. NBA and youth basketball participation in China. 

Today’s announcement builds on NBA China’s existing partnership with Tencent, the NBA’s largest international partnership that sees Tencent stream an entire season of live games and content to fans on Tencent platforms each season.  Throughout the year, Tencent will promote the Jr. NBA, the league’s global youth basketball program for boys and girls, through WeSee and its social networking platforms Qzone.  WeSee is a Tencent APP where users can create and share short videos, while Qzone is one of the largest social networking platforms in China.

As part of the partnership, Tencent will live-stream the Jr. NBA World Championship, the NBA’s global youth basketball tournament for elite 13- and 14-year-old boys and girls teams from around the world, with Chinese commentary.  Original Jr. NBA programming and content will be available through official Jr. NBA-designated accounts, including the official Qzone accounts for participating schools.  Tencent and the NBA will also bring NBA players and 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.”

“We look forward to working with the NBA to grow basketball participation in China,” said Tencent Vice President Ross Liang.  “With the combined strength from Tencent and the NBA, we will provide WeSee users with more interesting and exclusive NBA content, and promote the Jr. NBA through live streaming of the Jr. NBA 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 2018-19 NBA season, WeSee and Qzone will deliver original NBA programming, highlights and one live game per week, including preseason and regular-season NBA games, NBA All-Star, the NBA Playoffs, The Finals, NBA Summer League and the NBA Draft, through the official NBA accounts and 30 NBA team accounts on personal computer and mobile devices.  

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 Tencent platforms each year through free games and NBA League Pass, the NBA’s premier live game subscription package.  Currently, live NBA games and content are available for fans through Tencent’s NBA sections on QQ.com, v.QQ.com, Tencent Video app, and Tencent News app. 

NBA China and Tencent also launched the league’s first NBA App in China in 2016 to deliver the best Chinese-language mobile experience to millions of fans in the country. 

In 2014, NBA China and the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) announced a comprehensive multiyear partnership to grow basketball participation in elementary and middle schools across China.  Under the umbrella of Jr. NBA, during the 2018-19 school year more than 4 million students from 4,000 schools across all 31 provinces and municipalities are participating in basketball classes using the curriculum jointly developed by the MOE and NBA China.  Boys and girls teams from 23 provinces and municipalities across China competed in the Jr. NBA World Championship China Regional from April to May 2018.  10 boys and 10 girls represented China in the inaugural Jr. NBA World Championship.

About the NBA

The NBA is a global sports and media business built around four professional sports leagues: the National Basketball Association, the Women’s National Basketball Association, the NBA G League and the NBA 2K League.  The NBA has established a major international presence with games and programming in 215 countries and territories in 50 languages, and merchandise for sale in more than 100,000 stores in 100 countries on six continents.  NBA rosters at the start of the 2017-18 season featured 108 international players from a record 42 countries and territories.  NBA Digital’s assets include NBA TV, NBA.com, the NBA App and NBA League Pass.  The NBA has created one of the largest social media communities in the world, with 1.5 billion likes and followers globally across all league, team, and player platforms.  Through NBA Cares, the league addresses important social issues by working with internationally recognized youth-serving organizations that support education, youth and family development, and health-related causes.

About Tencent

Headquartered in Shenzhen, China, and founded in 1998, Tencent is an internet-based technology and cultural enterprise. Tencent’s mission is to “improve the quality of life through internet value-added services”. Guided by its “user oriented” business philosophy, Tencent achieves its mission via the delivery of integrated internet solutions to over 1 billion netizens.

An industry leader and global pioneer of innovative, digital-based technology solutions, Tencent aims to provide platforms and services that connect everything. Through the company’s two principal business operations, “social platforms” and “digital content”, Tencent develops and delivers game-changing products, such as social communication platforms “Weixin/WeChat” and “QQ”, that connect people with services, foster closer relationships and create new business opportunities. From comics, videos, games and animation to music, literature, films and news, Tencent offers an incredible array of first-class digital content and multi-media services, providing entertainment and cultural enrichment to over 1 billion users across the globe. Tencent also provides cutting-edge financial technology and seamless mobile payment solutions that are helping support the development of smart cities, smart transport and smart retail.