Latin America Continues Growth As One Of NBA's Most Important Int'l Markets

The NBA "is without a doubt" an int'l league now, according to Pedro J. González of EL NUEVO HERALD. The league "features dozens of players from outside the U.S.," including a number of players from Latin America. The NBA has become "one of the most followed leagues by Latin Americans, both inside and outside the U.S." NBA VP of Latin America Philippe Moggio said, "We see a very big potential for the sport to continue growing in general. For this we have significant distribution in terms of content entering more than 55 million homes through ESPN and DirecTV Sport and at the local level in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina." Regarding the Latin American market's importance to the NBA, Moggio said, "For us it is a priority. We have 50 million fans and we want to keep growing and to do this we have alliances with different leagues, helping to improve the talent and other aspects like commercialization." He pointed out that the NBA currently features 15 players from the region (EL NUEVO HERALD, 1/19).