China’s Top Three Web Portals Gain Olympics Broadcasting Rights

China’s 3 largest web portals Sina, Netease, and Tencent announced at a joint press conference in Beijing today that they had all successfully signed a deal with CCTV, the official broadcaster of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, acquiring the rights to broadcast all Olympics events. This means that Sina, Netease, and Tencent will have full access to play all CCTV broadcasts live over the Internet.

Netease CEO Ding Lei, Tencent CEO Ma Huateng, and Sina CEO Cao Guowei were present with CCTV International Online Co. Ltd. CEO Wang Wenbin for the signing of the agreement. The companies claim that this will be the first time that the Olympics will be broadcast online live on such a large scale. Tencent, Netease, and Sina users will cover over 90% of all Chinese netizens. The Olympics is expected to be a boon for Chinese Internet portals due to an increased number of user visits and an expected lift in advertising revenues.