China-based streaming platform Tencent had its most-viewed NBA Finals on record for the '17 Golden State Warriors-Cleveland Cavaliers matchup. Tencent’s live game coverage received 190.9 million total views. The platform averaged 12.2 million unique viewers per game, up 30% from last year’s seven-game series. Game 5 was the most-viewed NBA game ever on digital in China, with 50.6 million total views and 15.9 million unique viewers. The new mark surpassed the previous record of 15.3 million unique viewers for Game 7 last year. Meanwhile, the #NBAFinals hashtag on China-based social media platform Sina Weibo generated a record 2.5 billion impressions, up 13% compared to 2.2 billion for last year's Finals (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
Rachel Riley will not present Sky Sports’ Friday Night Football next season following her "controversial comments" about Tottenham Hotspur's failed title challenge last month. She "opted to walk away after being left out of Sky's coverage of the biggest match of the season" when Chelsea clinched the Premier League with a victory at West Bromwich Albion on May 12. Sky was willing to offer Riley a new contract after her initial 12-month deal came to an end, but she "decided to pursue other opportunities" (LONDON TIMES, 6/14).
German telecom Deutsche Telekom will commence its live coverage of third-division Bundesliga football games at this year's season kickoff in mid-July -- "one year earlier than planned." All 380 matches will be shown on Deutsche Telekom IPTV platform Entertain TV, on the internet and mobile TV in Germany. This agreement was made with SportA, the sports rights agency of German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 6/14).
Discovery Communications Europe SVP, Country Manager of Central & Eastern Europe Victoria Davies said that Discovery is "now placing a huge focus on Eurosport Player." She said that the company's focus "is not only on the value of channels, but also on better content and what the consumer wants." Eurosport Player will offer "more exclusive content and experiences in the future, including VR and Ultra HD" (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 6/14).
The London Guardian and its sister Sunday title, The Observer, will become tabloids. The papers will switch from a mid-size Berliner format in early '18, 12 years after changing from broadsheets. Publisher Guardian Media Group said that it is part of a "transformation programme" aimed at seeing the loss-making papers break even by '19 (BBC, 6/13).
7Sports, the sports business arm of ProSiebenSat.1 Group, and Minute Media, the founder of global football network 90min, are expanding their collaboration. 90min will be developed for the DACH region by a joint venture. 7Sports can adapt 90min to the requirements of users in the German-speaking region. Minute Media holds a 60% stake in the venture (Minute Media).
The France-England friendly broadcast on TF1 on Tuesday drew an average audience of 6.45 million viewers, for a 28.5% market share. The match, which France won 3-2, attracted a peak audience of 7.5 million viewers. Last Friday’s friendly between France and Sweden was watched by 6.3 million viewers (L’ÉQUIPE, 6/14).
