Livestreaming platforms playing to win

Moreover, Suning's other sports investments include a majority stake in the Italian soccer club Inter Milan and the ownership of Chinese Super League club Jiangsu Suning.

Wang Dong, executive vice-president of Suning Sports, said the company has already formulated an investment plan for the next five years, and will pour more money into signal transmission, studio production, and game watching experience.

It will first try 5G operation and strengthen the application of more cutting-edge technologies, such as big data analysis and augmented reality.

"There are more than 120 million soccer fans in China, and we hope to provide them with the best watching service and communication platform. This is why we choose to establish our advantage in the soccer sector," Wang said.

The number of paying subscribers is expected to surpass 10 million, and the livestreaming sports business will be monetized through revenues from paying subscribers and advertisements.

Wang said the company will also integrate online and offline sports retail, such as allowing online paying subscribers, mainly aged between 26 and 35, to enjoy better shopping experience at Suning's brick-and-mortar stores across the nation.

"In terms of sports intellectual property, we will make more homemade programs, and carry out cross-border cooperation with partners in the entertainment, music, and fashion sectors."

Wang said they will continue to strengthen copyright protection, and have formed an association with the country's intellectual property department and the judicial department to create a fair competition environment.

According to the latest data released by the General Administration of Sport of China and the National Bureau of Statistics, the sports industry is expected to hit 5 trillion yuan by 2025.

Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd is also betting big on the sports livestreaming sector, as it announced last month a five-year expansion of its existing partnership with the National Basketball Association in China.

Last season, 490 million Chinese fans watched NBA programming on Tencent platforms, nearly three times the number for the 2014-15 season, according to the company.

Tencent, the digital media partner of the NBA in China since 2009, has streamed full seasons of live games and content to its hundreds of millions of daily users under a new contract partnership, which began in 2015.

The partners will also jointly manage and operate several other NBA services and activities in China, including NBA-themed mobile games, NBA social media accounts, and interactive fan events.

"Empowered by our technological capabilities, interactive platforms and content expertise, we will work closely with the NBA to further engage fans in China with sports excitement and technological innovations," said Tencent President Martin Lau in a statement.

"Young people are used to accessing external information via the internet. More and more video platforms have begun to pay attention to the field of sports, making the competition in the industry fiercer," said Qu Jing, an analyst at the Beijing-based consultancy Analysys.

Migu Co Ltd, a subsidiary of China Mobile that provides digital content products and services, has inked a strategic partnership with the Chinese Basketball Association to broadcast CBA games in the 2018-19 season and the 2019-20 season.

"We expect to further promote basketball and provide fans with immersive viewing experiences. In the future, we will beef up expansion of basketball games and more well-known sports," said Liu Xin, general manager of Migu.

Chinese audiences could watch livestreaming videos of CBA matches in 4K resolution, according to Migu.

Moreover, in December 2018, Migu reached a multiyear partnership with the NBA that will deliver extensive NBA content to fans on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong and Macao. The partners will work together to explore 4K resolution and virtual reality to enhance viewing experience.

The cooperation will also allow Migu to design and sell NBA and Migu co-branded lifestyle merchandise available to fans on China Mobile and Migu's platforms.

Migu partnered with China Central Television to broadcast the 2018 World Cup in Russia on digital media and telecommunication channels.

"In the future, the copyright will be more important and the threshold to obtain copyrights will be higher, which will enhance the operational costs. Enterprises in this sector tend to distribute content through multichannels, derived content and brokers to reduce costs," Qu of Analysys said.

Users' demand for content has become diversified, so the growth potential of sports livestreaming platforms involved in diverse businesses will be greater, Qu added.