The NBA’s partnership with Twitch to air select G League games for the remainder of the ’17-18 season is “one of the most intriguing attempts yet to figure out the future of sports programming,” according to Ben Cohen of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. There will be “dozens of ways to watch the same basketball game” on Twitch, and the consumers will “get to choose what they want.” The deal only covers the G League, but NBA officials said that it “reflects their broader strategy to reimagine how basketball games should be presented.” Twitch execs added that it “represents their own new front.” Cohen notes the standard formula for sports broadcasts has “remained mostly the same over the years.” The play-by-play announcer and color analyst call the game alongside camera angles that are “familiar by now.” However, the NBA “believes that’s about to change.” Twitch broadcasters “interact with their viewers through a live chat room adjacent to the stream, as if a television analyst were responding to questions while on the air, and the league hopes that loyal audiences will build around the streamers.” NBA VP/Global Media Distribution Jeff Marsilio said, “You might find one creator who is a stats geek and wants to dig into the numbers, or you might find somebody else who wants to do something that has more of a comedic presentation. You take one version of the game and make it many versions of the game for many different kinds of people.” Cohen notes the NBA “plans to monitor data from the Twitch streams for viewership and engagement trends, but the league will also pay attention to a more subjective measurement.” Marsilio: “Does this feel like a new way to watch the game that’s adding value?” (WSJ.com, 12/13).
AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT: Marsilio said that the incentive behind the NBA’s partnership with Twitch is to “engage with younger fans in the kind of way that hooks them for good.” He said, “Roughly half of our (NBA) fans in the U.S. are under 35, and that makes us the league with the youngest average age among its fans of any U.S. sport. … They’re the kind of fanbase that will take the time to learn something that might not be so easy to learn at first. They’re not intimidated by steep learning curves. And that will translate -- I hope -- to G League” (USATODAY.com, 12/13).
