Sina Weibo Has Started Live-Streaming NFL Games

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Following Twitter‘s success with the it’s NFL live streams, its Chinese equivalent, microblogging site Sina Weibo has made a deal with NFL to live-stream weekly games, and even the Super Bowl.

The first games, part of the deal with Sina Weibo, streamed over the past few weekends but the deal has only been announced now. They included Sunday Night Football games, and the final regular season game recently. They will also include another three playoff games, and Super Bowl LI in February.

Richard Young, managing director of NFL China, commented that,

[quote]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[/quote]

And valuable it sounds. Sina Weibo is a giant with nearly 300 million MAUs, and the deal will bring the NFL to this huge Chinese audience. With 1.5 million people watching NFL in China currently, Twitter‘s 2.3 million viewers on its own NFL live stream raised some eyebrows. If NFL China can replicate that, it will have found an incredibly effective media outlet.