After Record Growth In '12, NBA TV Plans To Expand Its Slate Of Original Programming

NBA TV registered record growth in ’12, delivering four of its top five most-viewed telecasts since the net became rated in November ‘10. The Lakers-Trail Blazers game to open the ’12-13 regular season marked the net’s most-viewed telecast ever with 868,000 viewers. That beat the previous record of 847,000 viewers for the premiere of “The Dream Team” documentary on June 13. NBA TV’s primetime viewership also jumped 55% compared to ’11, and NBA Digital Senior VP & GM Christina Miller credited programming like "NBA Fan Night," "Open Court" and "The Association" as contributing to the net’s success. Miller said, “We’ve had three of our best Fan Nights ever this year alone. … You’re seeing the popularity of the league and the involvement and the ability for the fan to impact the outcome definitely driving up those dot com and actual views.” Original programming is another area that NBA TV has made a commitment to expanding. Miller said, “Original documentaries is definitely something that we’re doing, and we’ll make some announcements after the New Year what our follow up to ‘The Dream Team’ will be, as well as some other long-form content that will be available before the season’s over.”

MOST-VIEWED NBA TV TELECASTS
RK	DATE	TELECAST	RAT.	VIEWERS (000)
1	10/31/12	Lakers-Trail Blazers	0.6	868
2	6/13/12	"The Dream Team"	0.5	847
3	4/27/11	Western Conference First Round: Grizzlies-Spurs: Game 5	0.5	835
4	5/1/12	Eastern Conference First Round: Celtics-Hawks: Game 2	0.6	796
5	1/14/12	Lakers-Clippers	0.5	756

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER: Miller also stressed that extending the fan experience across multiple platforms, and integrating those platforms, is a key component to continued growth for NBA Digital. She said it is about “creating a more immersive experience in and around the game.” The league this year redesigned NBA.com to showcase video and social elements, which Miller said “give our fans a heightened level of awareness and involvement.” An interactive component on NBA.com includes “TNT Overtime,” which allows a viewer to choose complementary camera angles during TNT game telecasts. NBA.com also introduced "NBA Challenge," a new predictive gaming platform. Miller said, “It gives you that companion experience. … The whole digital portfolio definitely amplifies that and offers those opportunities and that’s critical to the growth and the numbers that you’re seeing.”