On February 21, Kuaishou Sports announced a copyright agreement with UEFA (Union of European Football Association), becoming the official live streaming and short video platform of the UEFA Champions League this season (2021/2022), as well as obtaining the authorization of live broadcast of the UEFA Champions League and short video re-creation.
From February 16, Kuaishou has been broadcasting the entire Champions League knockout stage for free, and invited star commentators (e.g., Huang Jianqiang ) to deliver real-time results.
Kuaishou, the famous short video platform in China, said the partnership will provide audiences with a more convenient and high-quality viewing experience of the Champions League.
By offering the copyright of re-creation to excellent content creators, Kuaishou was aimed at giving full play to the value of copyrighted content and exploring the new practical scenes of sports event content, providing more new business opportunities for platforms and creators.
Starting from 2020, Kuaishou Sports signed the content rights to many major sports events, including Serie A, NFL (Super Bowl), NBA, CBA, America’s Cup, World Snooker and other popular sporting events.
According to Kuaishou, as of October 2021, it has more than 80,000 sports content creators. Industry experts believe that Kuaishou Sports’ collaboration with UEFA is another crucial step in the company’s ambitions to develop worldwide sports content. The fan economy and business cooperation generated by sports IP also have more market opportunities due to the connection of short video platforms.
