The league has been almost entirely off the air on Chinese state television since 2019, except for a lone finals game in 2020. Games have been broadcasting on Tencent, a digital streaming platform based in China. “N.B.A.
Companies such as Vivo, state broadcaster CCTV, and Tencent suspended all operations with the National Basketball Association. In 2021, the NBA and China relationship is being mended as NBA games are being broadcast on CCTV networks again.
On the eve of the current NBA playoffs, the league's games returned to state-run TV in China after a nearly three-year ban.
Key Background. The NBA has already been banned from CCTV, China's state-run television broadcaster, since Morey's 2019 tweet, a move that cost the NBA up to $400 million, according to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has said.
NBA's loss of China revenue estimated to exceed $200 million for season. The NBA's loss of revenue typically generated from China this season is estimated to be at least $200 million, according to Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN.
The league depends on the hoops-mad country for a multibillion-dollar portion of its annual revenue, which, critics say, has caused the league to remain silent on China's human rights violations, including its treatment of Uyghur Muslims that human rights organizations decry as a genocide.
The NBA has over a million followers on Chinese social media. This makes it the most followed sports league in the country.
The NBA's Chinese business is said to have 500 million fans and be worth $5 billion, per Sports Business Daily.
The sport gained more popularity due to introduction of Chinese players to the National Basketball Association (NBA). Houston Rocket's Yao Ming and Milwaukee Bucks' Yi Jianlian helped improve engagement. For Chinese people, seeing these athletes playing the NBA was a great source of pride.
Yao Ming is undoubtedly the greatest Asian player to have ever played in the NBA. Standing at 7'6", he was a dominant force in the paint and a dominant figure in the sport.
Enes Kanter Freedom has condemned human rights abuses in Turkey for years. Now he claims the N.B.A. is blackballing him as he focuses on abuses in China. Sign up for the On Basketball newsletter.
Most notably, in September 2021, China banned under-18s from playing games for more than three hours a week, a rule that has forced Tencent and its peers to give up targeting youth gamers.
Basketball is included in top sports being played in Japan but it is less popular than football and baseball.
China is known for being the most generous with their payouts ranging from $1 million to $3 million per season. Remember, these are only applicable to the top professionals in the league. There are two main factors that have been identified as influencing the payment ability of players in overseas basketball leagues.
The NBA makes roughly $5 billion a year from China. Separate from that, many team owners and players, individually, are heavily invested in China.
The N.B.A. has targeted China — and its population of 1.4 billion — for roughly a half-century. China now has more fans of the league than there are in the United States, a country of 330 million.
Michael Jordan placed second, ahead of notable figures such as Albert Einstein and Bill Gates. His popularity has paved the way for future stars to establish their presence in China.
Basketball is the largest spectator sport in China. China hosted the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Association football (also known as soccer) is the most popular sport in almost all Asian countries. Cricket is the second most popular sport in Asia, and is most popular in South Asia. Other popular sports in Asia include baseball, basketball, badminton and table tennis among others.
The Golden State Warriors are the most popular National Basketball Association (NBA) team online in China, according to the latest league-wide study from Chinese market specialist agency Mailman.
But Palihapitiya—speaking as a billionaire, venture capitalist, everyman—told his co-host that it was “a very hard, ugly truth” that “nobody” cares about the Uyghurs, saying the issue was “below [his] line” of interests.
The Walt Disney Co is doubling down on China's burgeoning consumer market through upgraded e-commerce offerings and one-stop solutions for partners to co-create locally relevant products, especially for the Generation Z or younger consumers, said a senior company executive.
Typically, the NBA has played preseason games in China and takes some regular-season games to Mexico and Europe. The NBA has a more than 40-history of doing business in China.
“Australia remains our no. 1 country in revenue and subscriptions for NBA League Pass outside of the U.S,” Rasu revealed. NBA also engages with fans across a variety of touchpoints across digital, retail, and on-ground activations, as well as social media, where they have a combined 2 million followers from Australia.