At 7:30 a.m. on February 14, at a bar in Jing'an District, Shanghai, a dozen NFL fans were waiting for the opening of the 2022 Super Bowl, which was live on Tencent's streaming platform. One of the spectators, Long, a 33-year-old Chinese man, said that he has watched the Super Bowl live for four years in a row, and over the past few ones, more and more of his friends have joined him.

American football was a fairly unsought-after sport in China for years, but thanks to the efforts of Tencent and the NFL, it has begun to gain popularity in recent times.

The NFL made its debut in 2004 by broadcasting the Super Bowl on Chinese sports channel CCTV5, and opening an office in China in 2008. It has been trying to grow its influence in China, however progress was slow until NFL collaborated with Tencent, China's social media behemoth.

In 2017, the NFL signed a deal with Tencent, granting the tech giant exclusive streaming rights to stream live and host on-demand NFL games’ replays in China, including all regular season and playoff games, as well as the Super Bowl. Later on, the Super Bowl 2018 drew seven million viewers in China, through both mobile and television channels. Nearly 80% of them watched on a mobile device, with Tencent accounting for more than 60% of the overall traffic. During the 2019 regular season, Tencent's platform achieved a 56% viewership rate, with 700 million views on NFL videos.

“The NFL fanbase in China continues to grow and become more enthusiastic,” said Richard Young, the general manager of NFL China. With a population of over 1.4 billion people and a per capita GDP of $10,500, the country’s audience is a very appealing factor to the NFL, which aims to generate $25 billion in revenue by 2027.

The viewership numbers of the NFL, while impressive, are still dwarfed by NBA’s numbers – it being the most popular sports league in China. It is worth mentioning that Tencent has been NBA's Chinese digital media partner since 2009. According to NBA’s data, during the 2018-2019 season, 490 million Chinese fans watched the NBA program through Tencent's platforms, which is roughly three times the 2014-15 season numbers. 21 million fans in China watched Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals on Tencent, making it the most-watched NBA game on a digital platform in China ever.

The success of the US professional basketball league in China proves that the benefits of partnering with Tencent go far beyond making the event available to a larger audience. 

Tencent's WeChat, the instant messaging app with the biggest number of active users in China, is an irreplaceable medium for interacting with the association’s Chinese fanbase. Besides that, it also utilizes Tencent's expertise in the gaming sector when developing and publishing video games, thus diversifying its revenue streams. As the world's largest gaming company, Tencent has launched several NBA-themed mobile games in China. The NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, admitted that Tencent has been the driving force behind the growth of basketball in China due to its vast reach and popularity. "Tencent’s commitment to NBA basketball in China is unparalleled...We look forward to deepening our connection with NBA fans across the country through expanded partnership,” said the commissioner. Hence, working with Tencent has been an integral part in the process of drawing in more fans and gaining a firm foothold in China for NFL.

Long told PingWest that he fell in love with the sport when he first watched an NFL game on Tencent Video four years ago. To watch the game and its replay in high-definition without ads, he also purchased an annual membership worth 418 yuan ($75.7) on the platform. "Relative to prices in developed countries, this [price] is very cost-effective, you can watch not only the NFL but other events that Tencent has been authorized to stream or host" he said.

However, users like Long are still a minority in China, where the willingness to purchase pay-to-watch deals is still low. Streaming platforms that spend huge amounts of money to acquire streaming or broadcasting licenses often find themselves in a need to create other revenue streams, otherwise they risk further financial struggles and being unable to break-even.

In 2010, iQiyi, the streaming platform backed by Chinese search engine Baidu, secured the exclusive broadcasting rights of the Premier League in China for three years by spending $30 million, however it soon ran into financial difficulties. PPTV, acquired by Chinese real estate giant Suning in 2013, invested more than 10 billion yuan in sports broadcasting rights, which has become one of the main factors that drove the giant into the crisis of capital chain rupture.

That won't be a problem for Tencent, though, as it has secured an abundance of stable and diversified cash flow. The deep-pocketed company spent $1.5 billion on renewing an exclusive digital media broadcasting deal with the NBA for the period 2020-2025, more than tripling the amount paid for the previous five-year pact. At present, Tencent covers the North American mainstream sports leagues, Premier League, French Open, F1, and many other events.