MLB last night announced a wide-ranging, three-year deal with Chinese media and technology outfit Le Sports that will bring live-streamed games to China for the first time. The deal, which was announced at the '16 CES in Las Vegas, arrived out of MLB’s int'l department and was spearheaded by Senior VP/Growth, Strategy & Int'l Chris Park. It will be supplemented by a variety of Mandarin-language programming and marketing endeavors. That includes the creation of an online community and e-commerce portal for Chinese baseball fans, offline marketing support and broadcasting games from MLB’s ongoing development efforts in China. “We want to weave baseball into the fabric of China’s culture,” said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. “We believe the key to continued internationalization is localization. We need to work with local partners to make it relevant.” MLB staged a two-game Dodgers-Padres series in China in ’08, has had a Beijing office since ’07 and distributes games there through various regional linear TV relationships. However, its progress in the country still lags behind several other sports properties. The Le Sports alignment offers an opportunity to showcase the sport in a more immersive way in the Mandarin language. The deal provides Le Sports with exclusive rights to live stream MLB games in Mandarin, designation as an official MLB strategic partner for Hong Kong and Macau in addition to mainland China, and the ability to rebroadcast games via video on demand. The company, whose parent LeTV also has interests in a variety of areas such as gaming, ticketing and e-commerce, last month gained naming rights to Beijing’s Wukesong Arena. Park said, "This is about generating the first generation of truly authentic baseball content in China. This will be the first generation of what baseball in Mandarin looks like and feels like.” MLBAM and MLB Network will provide some technical support to the Le Sports streams. As part of the deal, Le Sports gains the right to stream 125 games per season, including four regular-season games per week, 20 postseason games, all World Series games, and the All-Star Game. Financial terms were not disclosed.
PLAY BALL: BLOOMBERG's Novy-Williams & Chen wrote Le Sports "is familiar with MLB’s China-specific brand and has worked with baseball on a number of offline initiatives, including managing fan festival events and university leagues." As part of the new partnership, Le Sports "will continue to co-produce MLB Perfect Pitch, a baseball reality show, and work with baseball on events and marketing."
Le Sports "also has a novel way to sell baseball paraphernalia." VP of Strategy Yu Hang said that "during games, a column on the right of the screen could provide options for fans to purchase hats of the teams on the field, or the jersey of the pitcher on the mound."
Yu said, "This may be the first time in China that we integrate e-commerce elements while live-streaming sports" (BLOOMBERG, 1/6).
