In a quest to have its content delivered around the world, the Pac-12 is reaching across the Pacific Ocean to China.
The conference has announced that Pac-12 Networks content will now be distributed across linear and digital channels by Alibaba through 2024. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the extended partnership is the availability of Pac-12 content on Youku Todou, China’s version of YouTube.
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Among the clips of game action to already appear on the Alisports Youku Todou page include USC, Washington and Colorado football along with women’s volleyball matches. Last November, clips from Stanford’s exhibition basketball game against Tsinghua appeared on the page as well.
After the Cardinal won that game, the team played its regular season opener against Harvard in China as well. Alibaba will now broadcast Pac-12’s annual China game — played in Shanghai — through 2020.
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Fans — and Pac-12 alumni — in China can watch Pac-12 football, men’s basketball, women’s volleyball, gymnastics, swimming, lacrosse, track and field and beach volleyball. Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott told Bloomberg that the Alibaba deal will help raise awareness abroad of major college sports, especially Olympics-oriented sports that don’t get as much airtime in the U.S.
“In the past we’ve just licensed all our rights to ESPN, FOX, or others, and we still license half of our football games and about 70 men’s basketball games, and that brings in significant revenue for our schools, significant exposure,” Scott said. “But for the other football games, basketball games, and all these Olympic sports that might not have an ROI for an ESPN or FOX—so they won’t telecast them—we care. Our mission is to promote the broad-based competition across all these sports.”
“It’s a really big deal for us. We’re the first conference to really have a comprehensive partnership outside the U.S. They’re (Alibaba) gonna help us distribute a vast amount of content — 175 live events to the Chinese audience — as well as help us continue to have a regular season basketball game in China.
“If we were still relying on satellite delivery, with the costs and logistics involved, now we probably couldn’t do it. But digital transmission has really allowed us to keep our costs down when it comes to the international distribution of our content on the one hand. On the other hand, the connectivity we’ve got with each of our campuses allows us to produce, in a very efficient way, a huge quantity of events.”