Photo/Shetuwang

Aug. 16 (NBD) -- Chinese video-on-demand provider iQIYI Sports has acquired the exclusive streaming rights to La Liga 2019/20 season which is to kick off on Saturday.

Aside from broadcasting 380 matches of the season, iQIYI Sports will also offer original contents including news and videos from Futbol Club Barcelona official.

It is noted that the company currently holds the full media broadcasting rights to the next six seasons of La Liga in China.

Jointly founded by Chinese online video platform iQIYI (Nasdaq: IQ) and sports marketing firm Super Sports Media last August, iQIYI Sports has live streamed over 6,000 matches of more than 30 sport tournaments in the fields covering football, tennis, golf, kickboxing, etc., and produced over 200 episodes of sports documentaries and 20,000 sports-related video clips.

National Business Daily noticed that sports events have been new contents for Chinese video websites to woo users.

Alibaba-backed Youku witnessed an enormous amount of traffic flow on its platform when it live-streamed for the first time the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Statistics from data provider QuestMobile showed Youku's DAUs (daily active users) soared sharply after the first game was on and exceeded 100 million on June 23, 2018. A total of 180 million users cumulatively watched the soccer games on Youku during the tournament.

As more tech giants entered the sports media sector to scramble for a slice of the market and online users, competition remains intense this year.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Tencent, the exclusive digital partner of NBA in China, announced on July 29 this year a five-year expansion of their existing partnership formed since 2015. Under the new deal, live NBA games, video on-demand and short video contents will be available for fans through Tencent's digital and social media platforms.

Last month, PP Sports, a unit of online retailer Suning.com, bought streaming rights to Premier League for the coming three seasons for 721 million U.S. dollars.

Besides, Alibaba's Alisports was reported to establish a sports joint venture with Suning.com and acquire the sports resources from the latter, but the tie-up soon suspended this month after Suning.com, according to a source from Youku, raised the price for deal.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn