Nothin' but net: NBA celebrates a slam dunk at the Paris Games 2025 and outlines the evolution of its European broadcast strategy By Heather McLean Thursday, February 6, 2025 - 14:56
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The San Antonio Spurs' own French superstar, Victor Wembanyama, made a mark on TV, OTT and social media at the NBA Paris Games 2025 [Credit: NBAE/Getty Images]
The NBA Paris Games 2025 featuring the Indiana Pacers and the San Antonio Spurs in regular-season games on 23 and 25 January set multiple records across television viewership and digital and social media engagement.
Marking the 40th anniversary of the first NBA games in Europe, the matches pulled in global viewers as well as those across Europe and in particular, France, as the Spurs' own French superstar, Victor Wembanyama, made a mark on TV, OTT and social media.
Content across social platforms from the Paris matchups drove them to become the most-viewed NBA Global Games ever on social media, generating more than 718 million views.
The two games, which aired live in France on beIN Sports and Canal+, are the most-watched NBA games ever on television in France. The NBA's premier OTT platform, NBA League Pass, saw viewership up 29% in France versus last year's Paris Game.
Meanwhile, content featuring Wembanyama on social media as he toured Paris last week saw him propelled to become the second most viewed NBA player across @NBA social media accounts this season, with more than 836 million views; a video of him juggling a ball on the Paris Saint-Germain pitch garnered 43.1 million views on Instagram alone.
Interesting journey
On the NBA's success in France, Bastien Lacheny, NBA vice president, global media distribution for Europe and the Middle East, based out of the NBA's London office, tells SVG Europe: We're obviously delighted by the results and the performance of those games, but I think it's fair to say that it's been an interesting journey for the NBA when it comes to playing games in Europe. There's a very strong and long history of basketball and NBA in Europe, and a rich tradition.
Those games [in France] actually marked the 40th anniversary of the first NBA games we had in Europe. We've played 98 games in 10 European countries since 1984, so it's not something that is new. It's always been part of our strategy to try to provide to the local fan, given that most of them won't have the ability to attend an NBA game live in the US; the full experience. Having the ability to do that with Victor Wembanyama, for two games in his home town of Paris was incredible, continues Lacheny.
We were very pleased with the numbers, both on social where we generated the most video views ever for an NBA Global Game, and on linear television, where between BeIN Sports, our historical pay TV partner, and Canal+ that was broadcasting those two games free to air, we were able to achieve also a record number. So it was a fantastic result.
Massive change
The NBA's push for live games in Europe is part of a longstanding strategy of bringing the game to the fan, wherever they might be. However, notes Lacheny, but again, even if we are bringing those games to Europe, it's still only a few games a year .
Therefore the main fan experience for those living in Europe is OTT or linear broadcasts. Comments Lacheny: We've been airing games in the region since 1981, and actually it's a pretty cool story because the first game was the Celtic vs Lakers game on VHS; it was flown over from the US to Italy and hand delivered, so you can imagine the significant delay between the actual game and the viewers!
Fast forward to 2025 and you have the ability either through our broadcast partners that usually in the region are showing one to two games per day, or using our premium subscription service, NBA League Pass, to watch every single game on any device and at any moment, he adds.
So it's a massive change that has obviously been coming from the significant evolution of the media landscape in the region, the enormous growth in interest that we've seen in many European countries since then, and also a very different technological ecosystem.
The NBA is focusing on bringing games to fans in Europe from the US that they can watch without staying up all night waiting for them to start. Lacheny notes: What's pretty singular about the NBA fans in Europe is the fact that a lot of games are in the middle of the night, so this is a different market and different ecosystem that we're trying to address, which is why it's the 12th consecutive season we've scheduled weekend games that air in primetime in the region, creating regular viewing for fans. And we're seeing increased viewership on those game as well in several markets.
A packed house for the NBA Paris Games 2025 [Credit: NBAE/Getty Images]
Booming fandom
Following the NBA Paris games, fandom around the association in France is booming. Things have moved on significantly over the decades, comments Lacheny: I was an NBA fan when I was growing up, and there was literally no French player then. We have a record-tying 14 French players in the league today. And more generally looking at the region, we have 61 of the record-tying 125 international NBA players on opening-night rosters this season that are from [the European] region, which creates a tremendous opportunity for us.
The incredible thing is that these are not just role players, these are some of the best players in the world, he continues. You have Giannis Antetokounmpo in Greece, you have Nikola Joki from Serbia, you have Luka Don i in Slovenia, and you have Victor Wembanyama in France. And so it does reflect on their local markets.
This move has benefitted fans and the NBA is seeing viewing figures in Europe rise as a res
