The NBA D-League & YouTube Form Partnership

The NBA (for the NBA Development League) and Google (via YouTube) has
formalized a one-year partnership on Tuesday that would, among other
things, allow the NBA to stream over 350 D-League games live on YouTube.

The partnership allows YouTube to stream freely D-League matches on
the D-League YouTube channel <http://www.youtube.com/nbadleague> as well as a video
player on NBA.com as well as from the 16 teams that comprise the league on
their respective team sites. In doing so, amongst the four major American
sports, it would have the most number of live games shown on the
video-sharing website

The season and coverage will begin on Friday, November 23, with the Maine
Red Claws against the Canton Charge, the Erie BayHawks against the Fort
Wayne Mad Ants, the Tulsa 66ers against the Texas Legends and the
Bakersfield Jam against the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

The NBA has always been one of the most innovative with their forays with
social media to promote itself. Their partnership with YouTube stretches
back to 2005, when the league became the first professional sports league
to unveil its own channel <http://youtube.com/nba>. With more than 960
million fan views of its videos, it is the most popular sports channel on
the site.

The YouTube coverage complements the other avenues that the D-League has in
reaching out to its audience, from its television partners in NBA TV and
CBS Sports Network, to its free mobile app, NBA D-League Center Court.

NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver said that "The NBA’s latest initiative
with YouTube marks another milestone in our partnership and a great way to
tip off the 12th season of the NBA Development League. By turning to our
longtime partner, YouTube, we are able to bring the NBA D-League to
basketball fans around the world, further expanding the league’s growth and
showcasing future NBA stars.” Scanning the opening day rosters of the 30
NBA franchises shows that 20% of all the players have had D-League
experience.

Google / YouTube Global Head of Sports Claude Ruibal adds, “As one of the
world’s most popular sports with a broad roster of top prospects, the NBA
D-League is a perfect fit for the YouTube platform. With our broad global
delivery across all platforms and devices, providing live and catch up NBA
D-League games and highlights will make this exciting content easily
accessible to a whole new generation of basketball fans.” It is believed to
be that this is YouTube's biggest sports broadcasting rights deal to date,
although both sides did not disclose the actual figures.

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