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Tencent set to Stream 2017, 2018 and 2019 NFL games in China

Tencent set to Stream 2017, 2018 and 2019 NFL games in China

We’re not only seeing a blurring of our Content is King and Connected Society investing themes here in the U.S., we’re seeing in China as well in a deal between Tencent and the NFL. Live news and sports were two of the holdouts in streaming content, but with Google (GOOGL) adding streaming news to YouTube;  Amazon (AMZN), and Facebook (FB) streaming live sporting events this fall, and Disney (DIS) bringing a streaming ESPN service to market next year we think the TV broadcast only business is resembling the newspaper industry around 2001-2002.

 

Tencent is to become the exclusive live streaming partner in China for the National Football League’s American football games. The social media, games and streaming giant will air live and on-demand selected preseason games, all Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football games, as well as selected Sunday afternoon games, the playoffs, the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl for the 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons. The deal also includes non-game NFL content.

NFL live games and content will be available through Tencent’s NFL sections on both mobile and desktop terminals including Tencent Sports, QQ.com, Tencent Video, Kuai Bao, Penguin Live, the Tencent Sports app, the Tencent Video app, the Tencent News app, as well as its social networking services, QQ and WeChat. At the end of June, the combined monthly active users of Tencent’s social communications platforms, Weixin and WeChat, was over 960 million.

Source: Tencent to Stream NFL in China | Variety

An NFL ‘Thursday Night Football’ Games Win Cements Amazon’s Content Plans

An NFL ‘Thursday Night Football’ Games Win Cements Amazon’s Content Plans

If there is one company that blurs the lines across several of our investment themes and their tailwinds it is Amazon (AMZN). From the accelerating shift to digital commerce and cloud that is a part of our Connected Society investing theme to Cashless Consumption and increasingly our Content is King investing themes, Amazon continues to make strides as it expands the scale and scope of its Prime offering.  The latest includes beating out Twitter (TWTR), Facebook (FB) and Google’s (GOOGL) YouTube to stream the NFL’s Thursday Night Football. We’ll see how many viewers stream these games across Amazon’s Prime Video footprint across its various TV, tablet and smartphone apps, but in our view, this goes a long way to cementing Amazon’s position in content.  

 The only thing better than one thematic tailwind pushing on a company’s business is two… so you can imagine how powerful three of them must be! Our only question is how long until Amazon expands into our Guilty Pleasure investing theme?

The NFL has a new streaming host for part of its Thursday Night Football package.Amazon will stream the 10 games broadcast by NBC and CBS next season as part of a one-year, $50 million deal, according to The Wall Street Journal and The Sports Business Journal.

The games will be available exclusively to Amazon Prime subscribers, per The Sports Business Journal.

Amazon beat out Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for the rights, according to the report. Twitter paid $10 million last season to provide live streaming services for the same number of games.

Link to Story: Reports: Amazon lands $50M deal to stream NFL ‘Thursday Night Football’ games

 

Details of this story are featured on this week’s Cocktail Investing podcast. Click below to listen: