The NFL's new Chinese-language Web site will be a scaled-down version of nfl.com with an emphasis on rules and strategy, elements of football that NFL executives said are most interesting to a culture that is largely new to the sport.
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| The site will get plugs on the Super Bowl telecast, which reaches 300 million in China. |
The site, nflchina.com, is scheduled to launch Friday. Highlighting the unique sections of the site will be an area devoted to education that will include text and 5- to 10-second video clips, produced by NFL Films, illustrating basic elements of the game.
"Strategy is really what piques local interest more than anything else about our game," said Katie Boes, the NFL's senior director of international media.
In launching the site before this year's Super Bowl, NFL executives hope to capitalize on the telecast of the game on China Central Television, which reaches 300 million people and will promote the site during the game. The site also aims to build on recent NFL success in raising awareness of the sport among China's children. The league last summer launched a tournament in Shanghai that drew several hundred thousand children, Boes said. The school-based tournament will be held in Guangzhou this summer and Beijing the next.
Philadelphia Eagles tight end Chad Lewis, who speaks Mandarin Chinese, will provide commentary for the site.
The NFL last week signed Budweiser as the first sponsor of the site. Financial terms of the deal were not available.
Chinese company Zou Marketing, which has provided the league with much of the fan research used for the site's development, is sharing sponsorship sales duties with the league for the site.
