The hidden value of world-class sports events continues: CCTV's broadcast rights are confirmed, and Byte, Tencent and Kuaishou are also here

Recently, China Central Radio and Television officially disclosed the exclusive all-media rights and sub-licensing rights of the 33rd Summer Olympic Games (hereinafter referred to as the "Paris 2024 Olympic Games") in Chinese mainland and Macao, China.

Among them, the General Manager Office of China Central Radio and Television Station has reached a video on demand and short video copyright cooperation with Beijing Ziqiao Network Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing Kuaishou Technology Co., Ltd., and Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Co., Ltd. on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games event program, and China Mobile Migu has officially reached a copyright cooperation in the field of public Internet and telecom operators for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be available on demand (including replays) and short videos.

The rise of short video platforms

In recent years, short videos have played an increasingly important role in the lives of Chinese netizens, and in the 2016 Rio Olympics, Tencent and Youku won the right to broadcast the Olympic events within a week of the countdown to the opening of the Olympics, when the industry was still dominated by long-form video platforms. In 2021, Kuaishou became the official live broadcast platform and official short video platform of the CBA. For the 2022 Qatar World Cup, Douyin became the rights-holding broadcaster and the official live broadcast partner of China Central Radio and Television.

At present, the CCTV platform has not disclosed the specific price of the broadcast right, and an industry source told reporters that the price of several platforms will not be the same in theory, mainly according to the different distribution platforms to decide. According to the official poster and information disclosure, the byte system authorized platforms include Douyin APP, Toutiao, Know Chedi, PICO, Doubao, etc. Kuaishou will integrate content ecology and business ecological resources across the board, providing event content, derivative programs, interactive experiences, and new consumption scenarios. Tencent distributed the Olympic content to Tencent Video, Tencent Sports, WeChat, Tencent News, Tencent.com, QQ, QQ Browser, Weishi and other channels.

For the platform that obtained the broadcast rights this time, Zhang Bin, an independent commentator in the sports industry, analyzed in the article that Tencent Sports has gradually given up major copyright battles other than the NBA because of the contraction of the front, iQiyi Sports focuses on football, tennis, golf, Xiaohongshu basically does not involve live broadcast copyright, and Station B is a shallow taste in terms of copyright, Migu, Douyin, and Kuaishou have become the only remaining copyright players on the market. This three-way pattern is likely to continue in the short term.

Among the other 4, only Migu has obtained the live broadcast copyright, in this regard, Zhang Bin said that as a "national team", strength must be the primary factor. According to past experience, the copyright price of the Paris Olympics is bound to be expensive, and there is a high probability that Migu is the only platform that has the strength and willingness to win the rights and interests of live broadcast, on-demand and short video.

It is worth noting that recently, the strategic cooperation between China Central Radio and Television Group and China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd. and the signing of copyright cooperation for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games were held in Beijing. The two sides signed four cooperation agreements, including a strategic cooperation framework agreement, to carry out in-depth, all-round and multi-angle cooperation in multiple fields such as live broadcast copyright licensing, strategic cooperation of resources, and joint operation of content. Peng Jianming, a member of the editorial board of China Central Radio and Television and general manager of the general manager's office, said at the scene that the main station has always maintained a close and friendly cooperative relationship with China Mobile, especially in the communication of major events, and carried out comprehensive cooperation on copyright, so that more people can appreciate the infinite charm of sports events.

Regarding the short video platform's active purchase of the Olympic broadcast rights, a short video industry person told reporters that on the one hand, it is considered that the topic nodes of the Olympic Games can remain sticky in terms of user stickiness and topic discussion; Secondly, world-class events are often an important node for brand exposure, and brand marketing budgets will flow to platforms that own the rights to the events. The third is to combine the above two items to drive the e-commerce of the platform, especially the product sales of the pan-sports industry.

An industry analyst told reporters that in the short term, the broadcast of world-class sports events can allow the platform to rely on IP to attract a large number of users and advertisers, and carry out a large number of large-scale commercial operations around the broadcast. In the long run, it can compete for a part of the users, or it can accumulate business experience and enrich the ordinary brand image, and accumulate strategic resources for more content business in the future.

Considerable benefits behind the high costs

Monetization and revenue are important considerations for event cooperation, and advertising is the main form of cooperation. Wang Shui, director of the Department of Advertising at Capital University of Economics and Business, told the first financial reporter that the cooperation between short video platforms and international sports events has a positive effect on boosting the platform's advertising revenue. On the one hand, sports have a strong centripetal force in attracting traffic, which can not only attract sports crowds, but also attract interested people. In addition, in terms of form, in addition to the sports event itself, the form of content such as delay, replay, and slicing around the event can also achieve the role of aggregating traffic.

With the increase in the traffic gathered by the platform, Wang Shui said that the increase in traffic will lead to an increase in the platform's advertising inventory and directly drive advertising revenue. Compared with traditional marketing or entertainment marketing, sports marketing is easier to stimulate the audience's goodwill, because the audience emotions behind sports marketing are very complex, sometimes containing rich national emotions, and entertainment IP will face social public opinion controversy, and the upward psychological state of sports marketing is more friendly to brand delivery.

In addition, when cooperating with sports events in advertising, Wang Shui said that the context of the advertisement is very interesting, taking the Olympic Games as an example, CCTV used to release advertising resources at the moment of winning the championship or the gold medal list, which is a particularly safe and friendly context for the brand, which is very helpful to boost the brand image and gain the goodwill of users. And in the history of China's advertising development, sports marketing occupies a very important position, especially in the 21st century, especially after the 2008 Olympic Games, the development of sports marketing can be described as advancing by leaps and bounds.

In summary, Wang Shui believes that sports events themselves can attract traffic, generate traffic cohesion, and boost advertising inventory. At the same time, the advertising context created by sports marketing is also very attractive to brand owners, so it is more important for the platform to obtain a certain level of sports event cooperation resources, and it has also become a battleground for video platforms or short video platforms.

Zhang Bin took Migu as an example and said that Migu has always been playing around the top copyright to create a commentary group, but from the perspective of the copyright operation of a single event, it is difficult for Migu to realize the profitability of the copyright of the Olympic Games. However, the added value brought by the copyright of top-level events is implicit and huge. Although the growth of advertising revenue is obvious, it is difficult to cover the high cost, and the spillover effect of user precipitation and brand value is difficult to measure on the books.

(This article is from Yicai)