The 2022-23 basketball season garnered over 100 million unique viewers in India across linear, social media and digital media platforms, NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum has said.
“Our games are widely distributed and available with our partners in India. Last season was the most viewed season in India surpassing 100 million unique viewers across linear, social media and digital media platforms for the first time ever. Our games are available in Hindi as well with our partners,” NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum told Hindustan Times over a video call from Indianapolis.
“We are doing a ton in India. It is the most populous country in the world right now as we all know. We are trying to do more grassroots programmes, some more junior NBA programmes for example. We work with the Reliance Foundation on our NBA junior programme to get more boys and girls playing the game of basketball there. We have NBA basketball schools in India as well.”
Tatum told the daily that the NBA is constantly in the process of increasing fan engagement in India, which also hosted two international pre-season games between Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings in Mumbai in 2019.
Ever since becoming deputy commissioner and COO in 2014, Tatum helped in bringing the NBA to India and also helped set up the NBA Academy India in 2016 in Greater Noida.
“We are really consistent with our strategy around the game overall which is to get more people to play the game of basketball through these junior NBA programmes, making sure our content is available in local languages and widely available to as many fans as possible. Those are the things we are doing in India to grow the game,” said Tatum.
