Tencent Acquires World Touring Car Cup Rights For China

The World Touring Car Cup will be broadcast live in China on one of the country’s largest live sports streaming platforms owned by internet giant Tencent

QIE Live will now cover the WTCR under an agreement between the OTT platform and Qishi, the media rights holder in China.

The service will stream all remaining WTCR events, starting with this weekend’s Race of Hungary.

QIE Live currently has broadcast deals with the NBA, UEFA Champions League and Formula One.

Mingjue Ye, General Manager of broadcaster QIE Live, said of the agreement: “We are very pleased to become the online broadcaster of WTCR in China. To enable the racing fans to get closer to the races, we would like to bring WTCR to a customised page to show more highlights and reviews after each race. As the broadcaster of Formula One, our platform is gathering more and more racing fans. We strongly believe that WTCR will become the most popular touring car racing worldwide and we feel honoured to be the part of it.”

Yue Pan, Managing Director of Qishi, added: “We are delighted to bring the all-new WTCR to Chinese audiences. All remaining races including the exiting Macau race, which Chinese motorsport fans have desired for many years, will be broadcasted via QIE Live. WTCR cars, such as the Volkswagen Golf, Honda Civic and Audi RS 3, are very popular in China so we believe each brand will have their own racing fans soon. We will also work with live.qq.com to build a WTCR web page where fans can access all the interesting content. It’s a new season with new cars and new audiences.”