NFL Becomes First Sports League to Stream Live Games in China on Sina Weibo

The National Football League has entered a strategic partnership agreement with Sina Weibo, one of the largest social media platforms in China. In addition to the six (6) regular season games streamed the past couple weekends, Sina Weibo will livestream in China the final Sunday Night Football game in Week 17, three (3) playoff games and the Super Bowl.

“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.”

“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.

Sina Weibo is one of the most popular sites in China with 132 million daily active users (DAU), 297 million monthly active users (MAU) and a market penetration similar to that of Twitter and YouTube in the United States. On average, 100 million messages are posted each day on Sina Weibo.

The NFL now has over 1.5 million online viewers across China each week and viewership continues to grow. Additionally on average there are over 5 million views of NFL clips in China each week. Many people watch the games played early in the morning via “in game” video clips.

In addition to live streaming NFL games, Sina will also have rights to non-game video-on-demand (VOD) clips, highlights, and other NFL video content, including Top 10 performances of the week, Top 5 Runs and Catches, etc.

With this partnership, the NFL has further extended its digital presence in China, making the most valuable content in sports and entertainment even more accessible for Chinese users across multiple digital platforms.