Chinese game live-streaming platform Huya has made an announcement to reduce its esports licensing fees for broadcasting League of Legends (LoL) matches.
Image Credit: @lplenglish
Huya to Lower Fees to 230 million RMB
According to a report by the Esports Advocate, Huya has signed a second supplemental agreement with Tengjing Sports & Culture Development (Shanghai) Co., Ltd, also known as TJ Sports, the organizer of the League of Legends Professional League (LPL) for broadcasting LoL matches.
TJ Sports is a joint venture between Tencent Holdings Limited and Riot Games, with Tencent holding 66% ownership in Huya.
The Board of Directors and the audit committee of Huya have approved the new agreement, which will lower the aggregate license fee for 2024 and 2025 to ¥230M RMB ($32.8M), down from the previous agreement of ¥300M ($42.8M). The original deal granted Huya exclusive live broadcasting rights for the LPL in mainland China from 2021 to 2022.
The amendment in 2023 made broadcasting rights non-exclusive for the following years and eliminated sub-licensing rights. Despite including the League of Legends World Championship from 2023 to 2025, the fee was reduced to ¥450M ($64.2M).
Now, with the aim of adjusting to their financial position and market conditions, Huya and Tencent’s affiliates are further lowering the fees. The company faced a decline in live-streaming revenues from ¥8.2B ($1.17B) in 2022 to ¥6.5B ($930M) in 2023, a 21.3% decrease attributed to reduced user spending and increased competition.
To address this financial challenge, the company is optimizing costs by implementing stricter content procurement and production processes. This announcement comes just days before LPL teams kick off their World Championship participation in Europe, starting from the Swiss stage on October 3.
