The NFL already established a permanent China office in 2007, and they have locked in a partnership with CCTV 5 which will see highlights broadcast each week as well as new streaming and video-on-demand games on popular web portals.
"We are excited to offer the best-ever lineup of NFL content to the Chinese audience in 2009," Mike Stokes, the NFL's managing director in China, said in a statement. Their confidence in Chinese marked partly came from the success of February's Super Bowl, which gained 2.2 million live viewers and an additional 100,000 plus viewers watching a delayed stream on Sina. Stokes also said that they expected to win more Chinese fans through CCTV and its expanded partners, including Sina, SMG, GDTV and QQ.com.