January 8, 2017

Warriors-Kings will be first Regular-Season game to be streamed live on Facebook - for India!


When two California teams at the forefront of the NBA's technological push, both with hand-prints of Vivek Ranadive, with international aspirations, meet on "Bollywood Night", a little bit of history is only inevitable. So when the Sacramento Kings host the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night (Monday morning in India), it will become the first time that an NBA regular season game will be streamed live, via Facebook, exclusively for Indian fans!

On Monday, Jan. 9 (7:30 am IST), the NBA will stream the Kings-Warriors matchup to fans in India across the Facebook Pages of the NBA, the Kings and the Warriors. This game, to be held at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, marks the Kings’ fourth annual "Bollywood Night", a celebration of traditional Indian culture, cinema and music.

The game will be geo-targeted to fans in India. The Facebook stream will feature the league’s newly released “NBA Mobile View” feed, delivering a closer shot of the action optimized for viewing on the smaller screens of tablets and phones.

"We are excited to once again take part in an innovative league initiative that will provide a unique experience for our fans in India," said Warriors President and COO Rick Welts. "We are always looking for ways to utilize technology for opportunities to connect with our diverse group of fans throughout the world and are thrilled to engage with our followers in India tomorrow night."

Kings' owner Ranadive, who is the first Indian-born majority-owner in the NBA, used to be a minority owner with the Warriors and introduced the "Bollywood Night" concept in Bay Area in 2011, and then took the 'Night' with him once he bought the majority stakes of the Kings. This game could feature up to six soon-to-be NBA All Stars, including Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, DeMarcus Cousins... and Zaza Pachulia. The Warriors are of course one of the most popular teams in the league and currently have the NBA's best record at 31-6, leading the Western Conference. The Kings have struggled again this season (15-21) but are at 9th in the West and could actually sneak into the playoffs for the first time since 2006.


1 comment: