Tom Group, NBA Partner On Chinese Web Sites; Free Live Games Online Daily During Regular Season
This story was written by Staci D. Kramer.
The NBA's digital reach in China is getting a Yao Ming-sized boost from a new deal with Tom Group. The multi-year pact between NBA China and Tom Group means expanded content for NBA.com/China, NBA.com/Taiwan and NBA.com/Hongkong. The China and HongKong siteswill show a live NBA game every day of the regular seasonfree, with play-by-play in Chinese. Other aspects include live halftime highlights in real time; social network features; personalization; anda first for Asiaa live daily half-hour highlight show produced by Tom for all three sites and as a prime-time show on CETV. Tom claims 100 million users, 200 million wireless users and 70 million TOM-Skype users. Release.
-- NBA in China: Thirty percent of the traffic on NBA.com comes from China; more than 50 percent overall comes from outside the U.S.. Last season, the three sites combined for more than 385 million total visits. That's small compared to the 1.6 billion who tuned in on TV.
By Staci D. Kramer