On May 29, Youku officially announced that it has become the official partner of CCTV's designated new media in the 2018 World Cup, and obtained a number of rights and interests in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, including: live events, video on demand, and field highlights, , and fully entered the sports content market.
Therefore, Youku has become the only platform among the three mainstream video platforms in China - "YouIi and Tencent" that has the right to broadcast the World Cup.
It is reported that during this World Cup (June 14-July 15), domestic users of will be able to watch 64 World Cup games in high-definition live broadcasts directly on Youku mobile client and PC. In addition, you can also watch high-definition content of the World Cup events on smart TVs or through Tmall Magic Box and Tmall Magic Screen.
has numbers showing that the number of domestic audiences in the 2018 World Cup is expected to exceed 1 billion, which will increase significantly compared to in the 2014 Brazil World Cup .
Since the time difference between Russia and China is only 5 hours, means that most games will start before the early morning Beijing time. For example, the opening game of the highlight and the final start time are 23:00 Beijing time, which is the prime time for domestic users to watch the game.