NBA, the North American basketball league, has signed a five-season extension to its partnership with Sony-owned Indian broadcaster Multi Screen Media, from 2016 to 2020.
Under the deal, MSM-owned Indian pay-television channel Sony Six will continue to broadcast live coverage of NBA games.
Coverage will include two regular-season games each day, in addition to all NBA all-star events, playoffs and finals series.
Indian newspaper The Economic Times reported that the extended deal is estimated to be worth between R220 core (€29.7m/$33.8m) and R250 crore.
Sony Six, in 2010, signed a two-season deal to become the NBA’s official broadcast partner in India. In 2012, this agreement was extended by three years through to the 2015 season.
Yannick Colaco, managing director of NBA India, said: “Our live programming is broadcast early in the morning. We are looking to exploit it because there is hardly any other quality live sports content programming at that time. We expect viewership to increase by double-digit figures every year.”
Prasana Krishnan, business head for Sony Six, added: “We are promoting the concept of breakfast viewership of sport and once the culture of breakfast viewing grows, NBA will have the monopoly in the viewing window.”