The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced that the 2022-23 NBA season was the league's most-watched in India, with more than 100 million unique viewers across linear, social, and digital media channels for the first time.
"Surpassing the milestone of 100 million unique viewers last season is a testament to the growing interest in basketball here in India. Our strong distribution network and local language commentary on the platform has expanded the league's audience in the country, especially within the Hindi-speaking markets," said NBA India Global Partnerships & Media Business Head Sunny Malik.
"As we gear up for the 2023-24 season, we look forward to building on this momentum by providing fans in India with new and exciting ways to experience the NBA, including digital innovations and customized content on the devices and platforms they use the most," Malik added.
The NBA season 2023-24 begins on October 25, and games will be telecast live in India on Sports18-1, JioCinema, and NBA League Pass via the NBA App.
Viewership of NBA games on digital platforms increased 12 times from the 2021-22 season. In comparison to the 2021-22 season, total linear and digital watch time of NBA games and programming increased by 50%.
Fifty-three per cent of viewers were 30 years old or younger, and 45 per cent were female. Throughout the season, Hindi commentary was offered for 112 games, leading to an overall reach of 33 million spectators.
To further engage Indian children and teach them the foundations of the game, the NBA launched a youth-focused educational broadcast series on Nickelodeon Sonic featuring local cartoon characters Happy and Pinaki. The show had 11 million viewers.
Further, the NBA released ten locally produced content series in India that garnered 182 million views across the league's social media channels, including "This is Basketball", a series starring NBA Brand Ambassador for India Ranveer Singh that showcases the diversity of the basketball community in India; All The Way Up, a series with leading hip-hop artists that explores the convergence of hip-hop and basketball; and The NBA India Weekly Show, centred on all things NBA and basketball.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a multinational sports and media organisation dedicated to inspiring and connecting people across the world through the power of basketball.
The NBA has created one of the largest social media communities in the world, with 2.1 billion likes and followers globally across all league, team and player platforms.
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