Buzzer beater: Levelling the basketball stage in Europe with the NBA's push on personalised scheduling and enhanced apps to pull in viewers By Heather McLean Thursday, February 6, 2025 - 14:53
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Today NBA games are available to view in 47 European countries, in 38 languages, and through 36 broadcast partners and on NBA League Pass, its premium live game subscription service. Pictured, French player Victor Wembanyama at the NBA Paris Games 2025 [Credit: NBAE/Getty Images]
The NBA is pushing one of the most exciting sports globally out to viewers using personalised scheduling for European broadcasters as well as an enhanced app for fans, and importantly for the future, a revolutionised rights holders set up that will level the global stage.
When it comes to the fulfilling the dreams of basketball fans in Europe, today NBA games are available to view in 47 European countries, in 38 languages, and through 36 broadcast partners and on NBA League Pass, its premium live game subscription service.
Given the diverse European market, the way the NBA distributes that content in the region has been evolving over the last five to 10 years as well, in a bid to give fans a more significant and personalised viewing.
Historically the NBA delivered the same content to all markets over satellite, because everybody wanted the same game, states Bastien Lacheny, NBA vice president, global media distribution for Europe and the Middle East, the game of LeBron James or Steph Curry, but now in the last 10 years, I think we've seen so many different local superstars European superstars popping up and growing, that we have had to adapt .
That has meant a move to SRT and fibre distribution for a more efficient and cost effective delivery operation, and importantly, a personalised content service for broadcasters.
Speaking to SVG Europe, Lacheny elaborates: Games that are the ones that the actual local fans want and not just the best game of the night in a one size fits all strategy are important, because localisation is required. We're doing it increasingly.
We've put in place something that we call flexible scheduling that literally allows our partners to have the ability to pick different games, Lacheny continues. We always come to them at the beginning of the season with the schedule that we believe is the most relevant one, but on the basis of a local player or team performances, our broadcast partners have the ability to pick different games and to have ultimately the most relevant games delivered to the local fan.
And in addition to live game broadcasts, we now have 21 social media accounts in eight languages across five different platforms in Europe only. Our work and the work of the content team and the marketing teams and digital teams has become more exciting, because we have a lot of local players and local talent, but it's also a lot more granular and customised country by country, to make sure we deliver the most relevant content to every fan.
Last season was the NBA's most-viewed season ever across its social and digital platforms in Europe, surpassing 700 million video views in the region for the first time.
NBA players battle it out in the Spurs vs Pacers game in Paris on 25 January [Credit: NBAE/Getty Images]
Enhanced app
Lacheny comments on what is driving this exciting growth in fandom within Europe: There's the interest in basketball, in the NBA brand, and players, and the interest that is driven by local player in their home country and region. Fans in Europe want to watch their games and highlights on the devices and platforms they use most, and when it's most convenient for them.
He adds that the NBA has seen a transfer of the consumption of its video content from its website nba.com which when it launched in the late 1990s was cutting edge for the time, to the NBA app which was revamped in 2022 and where, he adds, we've also been adapting the experience and the user journey to what people are used to on social networks .
He goes on: So for instance, we've introduced a format that is very similar to the stories that you'll find on Instagram [on the app]. And that became a massive driver of the growth in terms of time spent and video views in just a few years, after we've relaunched a new version of the NBA app just a few years ago.
Global stage
Huge things are now afoot in the rights department for the NBA, where following an announcement six months ago, global rights holders are changing from regional and decentralised, to centralised and international. This is set to be a bonus for global fans of the sport.
Lacheny explains: We're basically coming from decades of an ecosystem where in most of the territories in Europe, we had one local partner that was owning our rights exclusively, to an ecosystem where rights will be shared between global and local partners.
The future is very exciting because it's going to be a big shift in the way we distribute our content, states Lacheny. Looking ahead to next season, we are delighted to have announced that we will continue our partnership with the Walt Disney Company, and begin new agreements with NBC Universal and Amazon Prime Video for the next 11 seasons, which means that we're going to have a lot of time to build up those partnerships together.
This deal stems from the US media rights domestic agreements, however, it is the most global deal ever made by the NBA. Explains Lacheny: Those three companies acquired content globally. This is also the first time that all the games are going to be available in the US on streaming platforms
And so you have NBC Universal that has acquired games in the Sky territories, in UK and Ireland, in Italy and in the German, Australia and Switzerland region. Amazon also acquired a package o
