Tencent Profits From FIFA World Cup Despite Lack Of Live TV Rights

Although its advertising revenue during the World Cup period cannot match the 1.5B yuan ($242M) of state broadcaster CCTV, Chinese Internet company Tencent earned about a third of the 700M yuan ($112M) "in revenue generated from advertising placed on Internet video sites for the tournament," according to the WANT CHINA TIMES. Compared with CCTV, which "won the TV broadcast rights for the World Cup but declined to resell live broadcasting rights to online video sites, the audience size for these online video sites appeared smaller." People "wanting to watch the games on online video sites can only see them 90 minutes after they finish at the earliest." In terms of sharing TV rights with Internet media, CCTV "is facing a grave threat from the rising popularity of Internet services and smartphones, with its advertising revenue having been seriously impacted due to a shrinking audience base" (WANT CHINA TIMES, 6/25).