The North American NBA basketball league has extended and expanded rights partnerships with Chinese IPTV provider BesTV and Italian pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia.
The league’s NBA China division has signed a multi-year extension to its partnership with BesTV, which is a member of the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group, a subsidiary of Shanghai Media Group.
Under the terms of the new deal, nearly 1,300 NBA games, as well as other programming, will be made available across BesTV and SMG’s media platforms.
The NBA Zone subscription service will be accessible via BesTV’s IPTV and over-the-top set-top box services, as well as through the provider’s mobile application, smart TVs and via the Xbox game console. NBA games will also be available on-demand through these services.
NBA content will be made available on SMG through the GreatSports, SiTV and Dragon Satellite TV services.
BesTV and SMG’s coverage will include regular-season and playoff games, as well as the NBA All-Star, NBA Conference Finals, NBA Finals and NBA Draft events. Original programming and highlights will also be included in the deal.
Meanwhile, the NBA has agreed a multi-year extension to its partnership with Sky Italia.
Under the expanded deal, a dedicated NBA web portal, www.nba.com/italia, will launch in Italy. The official online destination, which will launch during the 2016-17 season, will be hosted in a dedicated section of the Sky Italia website.
Sky will broadcast four live games per week, including 22 primetime ‘NBA Sundays' fixtures, over the course of the season. The new web portal will also feature extensive video highlights, news, stats, scores and original digital content.
In addition, Sky will broadcast the league's playoffs, the NBA All-Star, NBA Conference Finals, NBA Finals and the NBA Draft, as well as extended programming and customised shows.