Chinese consumer electronics corporation Skyworth is the official television partner for the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, as well as the 2020 Asean Para Games, in a deal with international sports media rights agency Mediapro Asia. Both events will be hosted in the Philippines.
Skyworth is expected to use highlights from the various sports during the games on their large infinity screens at event venues, to showcase their cutting edge technologies. Coocaa, a subsidiary of Skyworth that focuses on e-commerce and Southeast Asia brands, is also part of the sponsorship deal for the SEA Games.
Skyworth’s artificial intelligence of things or AIOT system will allow fans to easily obtain sports and SEA Games related content through their voice search function.
“Let’s say for example, you are watching the game and you don’t know anything about a team, its ranking or who are its strong players – you can just ask the TV and simultaneously it will show the information you need in the background,” said Ronald So, Skyworth’s marketing director, according to Fastbreak.com.
Skyworth will be actively involved in the run up to the SEA Games, including the torch relays in the Philippines and Malaysia, as well as the Game Hub and Fan Zones.
Johnny Wang, the general manager of Skyworth overseas sales and marketing headquarters, said: “In the past decade Skyworth has placed a strong emphasis on the Southeast Asian market. We have invested in the region, and half of our overseas companies are located here. In 2016 we set up our biggest overseas manufacturing site in Indonesia, and the percentage of revenue generated from SEA is also expected to grow in the coming years.”
“Sport has always been something embedded in Skyworth’s DNA, and we will continue to support the development of sports entertainment with advanced technology.”
Coocaa is backed by Chinese online company Baidu, which invested around $160m (€148m) to take up the second largest shareholding in Coocaa in 2018, with aims to jointly provide consumers with entry-level smart-home products and services. Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent also took a 7.7-per-cent stake in Coocaa in 2017 for $43m (€38m) in 2017.
Skyworth and Coocaa joins Ajinomoto, Philippine Airlines, Atos, GL Events, Grand Sport, and Asics as sponsors of this year’s SEA Games.
The 11 participating countries at this year’s Games are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Timor Leste, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.