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Tencent grabs the digital rights to NBA basketball in China

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

The National Basketball Association has licensed China’s Tencent to be its partner in digital content for the next five years in China.

Effective on July 1, the deal recognizes Tencent’s huge position in Internet social networking and commerce in the world’s most populous market. As the exclusive digital partner of the NBA in China, Tencent will record a number of live NBA games and deliver the programming to its audiences. The content will include exhibition and regular-season games, the all-star game, the playoffs, the finals, the summer league, and the draft. Tencent will have the rights to air that content on personal computers and mobile devices.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.