North American basketball league the NBA has partnered with media and technology company BroadbandTV to launch a new platform designed as a community for video creators.
NBA Playmakers was revealed today (Tuesday). The first-of-its-kind video network will provide the creator community and NBA fans with the opportunity to produce basketball-related content and share it across the NBA Playmakers network, spanning YouTube, the NBA’s digital assets and other platforms.
In addition to BBTV’s multi-platform network expertise, content creators will be offered a variety of benefits, including special access to select NBA footage, NBA games and special events, access to NBA production facilities and new merchandise.
Select videos from across the creator community will appear live on a new YouTube channel, also named NBA Playmakers, which will launch later this year.
“Sports is a passion-driven content vertical that offers exciting opportunities for video creators, media companies, brands, and advertisers; it’s a market with massive potential,” BroadbandTV founder and chief executive Shahrzad Rafati said.
“We’re empowering creators to build the future of sports entertainment by partnering with one of the most renowned sports leagues in the world, and arming them with the content, tools and solutions they need to be successful.”
The NBA said its new platform will seek to be a key part of the league’s wider youth engagement strategy and will complement the NBA channel on YouTube, which was unveiled in February 2007.
The NBA and BroadbandTV first partnered in April 2009, with BBTV managing fan-uploaded NBA content onto platforms such as YouTube.