Five more years of NBA basketball and (with new content!) on Sony SIX in India

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Sony SIX - a television channel operated by Multi Screen Media (MSM) - are set to extend their profitable and high-profile marriage for five more years, in a deal estimated at around Rs. 250 crore (reported NitiCentral). The deal allows MSM and Sony SIX to continue to hold broadcast rights for NBA games and related NBA programmes in India.

This is great news all the way through. The partnership between MSM and the NBA was first announced in the 2010-11 season. A few years ago, the NBA and Sony SIX made a landmark decision to show two live NBA games daily during the course of the regular season, adding to a mammoth 14 live NBA games in India per week! As time passed and the NBA's popularity and viewership grew, SIX added many more supporting programmes to their NBA package, including India's first wrap-up show NBA Weekly, an Indian version of the iconic NBA Inside Stuff, grassroots events like NBA Jam from India, and more.

This season, all of the above is set to continue: two games everyday during the season, special All Star Weekend, Playoffs, and Finals coverage, condensed version of games at primetime in India, and other wrap-up shows. Additionally, IndianTelevision.com reported that Sony SIX will also create customized lifestyle-oriented, off-the-court programming from the NBA, Sony entertainment and Bollywood.

Via IndianTelevision.com

Sony SIX and KIX business head Prasana Krishnan commented, "Our partnership with the NBA has seen basketball become the fastest growing sport in India over the last few years. This clearly indicates that the TV viewing audience for the NBA will continue to rise. The launch of our customized local LIVE NBA wraparound program will also bring sports fans closer to the on-court action."
NBA India managing director Yannick Colaco asserted, "We are excited to extend our partnership with Sony SIX to continue delivering comprehensive coverage of the NBA to our fans. The popularity of the NBA continues to grow and, through the diversity of NBA programming on Sony SIX, we will continue attracting and engaging with existing and new viewers alike across India."
Sony SIX will continue to broadcast daily and weekly NBA highlight shows and integrate daily content from NBA TV, including team previews and recap shows. The daily 30-minute highlight programs will be broadcast in prime time every day of the season. The weekly highlight shows, hosted by a local anchor, will recap all the happenings around the NBA during the past week.
For the first time in India, the NBA and Sony SIX will introduce a customized, local live NBA wraparound program every weekend throughout the season, bringing viewers closer to the game. The program will be hosted by a panel of basketball experts that will provide analysis and insight on all of the latest NBA news.

During the previous NBA Finals, Sony SIX's Krishnan had also mentioned the channels desire to chase viewership, not brands, while Colaco added that the NBA has been growing at 'triple digit percentile' in every aspect, including merchandise, social media engagement, and TV viewership in India.

The upcoming season's broadcast on Sony SIX is set to begin on October 24th (this Saturday!), while the new NBA season tips off on Wednesday, October 28th!

Sony SIX has launched India's first NBA wrap-up show

It's one to show NBA games in India. It's another to make NBA games Indian.

TV channels in India, particularly Sony SIX over the last few years, have been doing the former for years now. It is not uncommon now for basketball fans to wake up for 'NBA Mornings on SIX' every day to catch an NBA doubleheader live in India. But Sony SIX are going one step further this year: launched over this past Sunday, the TV channel will show a weekly NBA wrap-up show exclusively produced for Indian audiences.

The show, entitled NBA Weekly, debuted at 11:30 AM on Sunday, February 8th, one week ahead of the NBA All Star Weekend. It will be broadcast on Sony SIX every Sunday at 11:30 AM until the season ends. TV anchor/artist Manish Anand is the host of the show.

Via IndianTelevision.com

NBA Weekly will provide viewers with a complete panorama on the sport, offering fans a unique perspective on the game by highlighting the best headlines of the week gone by as well as an insight into the upcoming action for the week ahead.
The show will present its own local spin off with in-depth reporting of the latest news on the NBA's biggest stars and most exciting teams, to enthrall Indian sports fans. The weekly show will provide fans an all access look into the best of on-court action, game highlights, top plays, moments of the week, player and team profiling amongst many other exciting stories.
Sony Six EVP and business head Prasana Krishnan said, "The show's format has been specially produced to connect with Indian audiences by offering comprehensive analyses on all the scheduled games during the NBA season. Through the years, we have seen a phenomenal rise in the viewership for NBA and that has propelled us towards making major investments in the continued development of the game both on-ground and on-air in the country."

The Head Coach of India's Senior Men's basketball team Scott Flemming will be a special guest on the show to provide wrap up coverage from the NBA All Star Weekend. Catch Coach Flemming as he discusses the NBA Saturday Night events on Sunday morning in India and on another special coverage after the All Star Game on Monday morning in India.

Great job Sony SIX! The channel had already launched India's own version of the NBA Inside Stuff last year, and this is the necessary next step for the continuing NBA growth in India. There are enough fans now who don't just want to watch the games - we want to here expert views about them, catch highlights, and keep our eye on the overall entertainment around the league. We don't just want NBA games in India, we want to make the NBA experience more Indian, too!

Indian Inside Stuff? NBA's cult show now gets India edition

When I started watching the NBA in the mid-to-late 90s, the live games an on-court action was the top priority of course, but the off-the-court stories relating to the league were pretty interesting, too. The NBA's always done a masterful job at promoting the personalities of their players almost as much as they've promoted their physical talents. Although we only saw a limited number of live games in India, much of my early impressions of the league were shaped by 'NBA Inside Stuff' - the magazine show led by Ahmad Rashad ("My main man...") and the incredibly likeable Summer Sanders - that promoted the off-the-court lifestyle of NBA stars sprinkled in with the best highlights of the week.

Inside Stuff came to an end in 2005, and then, at the beginning of this season, was resurrected to the delight of fans everywhere, this time hosted by former NBA star Grant Hill and Kristen Ledlow. Meanwhile, NBA broadcasting exploded back home in India, with more coverage than ever, leading up to the awesome gluttony of an NBA double-header every day in India on Sony SIX this season.

So you would expect a return of NBA Inside Stuff to Indian TV, too right? Right... Sort of. The NBA and their official broadcast partners in India Sony SIX just announced that, starting tomorrow, Sunday March 2nd, a special 'India Edition' of NBA Inside Stuff will be launched in the country!

A press release from NBA India had the juicy details: ‎For the first time in India, SONY SIX will launch a version of NBA Inside Stuff, the ground-breaking sports and entertainment all-access show, exclusively for audiences in India. The programme includes behind the scenes coverage of the NBA and its players along with highlights of the league’s activities in India.

The Indian version will have its own local spin of in-depth reporting highlighting some of the NBA’s biggest stars and most exciting teams, all packaged with a fresh new look to enthrall Indian sports fans. The show will air on Sony SIX every Sunday at 12:00 PM with the first episode airing on Sunday, 2nd March. The first episode will have a unique look at all the 'inside stuff' from the NBA All Star break in New Orleans.

India's version of the show will be hosted by Manish Nawani and Neelam Sivia. Nawani is an Indian actor who has appeared in a few TV serials on Zee TV and Channel V's The Buddy Project. He has a few films to his credit, too, including 2011's Shuttlecock Boys. Sivia is a model and actor who was in the Sony TV show Kya Hua Tera Vaada.

NBA Inside Stuff: India Edition is designed to be interactive with the fans of the game and will also act as a platform for sport enthusiasts to sample the best of the NBA as well as basketball in India.

On the eve of the show’s launch, Prasana Krishnan, EVP and Business head, Sony SIX said: "The show is a great hit internationally and we are sure that the familiarity supported by our localized content will help permeate the craze for NBA in the country. The show will enable viewers to connect with the sport even further. This introduction signifies our commitment to basketball and we will ensure that the Indian fan has every opportunity to enjoy the sport and its periphery in the best possible way."

Yannick Colaco, Managing Director, NBA India, said "Sony SIX is a great partner that continues to provide new ways to bring the NBA and the game of basketball to Indian audiences. This show will provide great insight into the NBA on and off the court, which will help lead to further viewership and generate greater involvement in the game among fans."

Personally, I'm quiet excited about this project and look forward to seeing what sort of 'Indian' elements Sony Six put out in the edition. Just having two Indian hosts and then cutting to scenes from the 'real' Inside Stuff isn't going to be enough. I'll be looking for a lot more focus on the NBA's efforts in growing the game in India and on basketball fan culture around our own country. Hopefully, the language and approach to the show is more desi, too. And would it be asking too much to hope for the NBA to feature Indian basketball players on the India edition every once in a while?

This season's forecast: An NBA doubleheader every day for fans in India!

There was once a time in the dark ages of communications, before mobile phones and before the internet blew up, that the only way for an Indian fan to follow NBA basketball was to watch the twice-a-week live games on TV. These games were early in the morning, and just couldn't come often enough for us. We planned our lives around these two games and were always desperate to watch more.

Things improved over the next decade, and the web opened a plethora of possibilities for the international NBA fanatic. TV broadcast deals with Ten Sports and Sony PIX, and then eventually, exclusively with Sony SIX, ensure that during the regular season, there would be around five live games for fans every week. We were spoiled, for we could potentially be watching a live NBA game nearly every day during the season. Now, instead of planning our week around those semi-weekly games, we would adjust our entire schedules to fit in Na daily dose of NBA action in the morning, somewhere between brushing our teeth and breakfast.

But from this year onwards, prepare to be overdosed.

NBA's multiyear deal with Sony SIX in India has been expanded. Starting this season, NBA's India broadcast partner Sony SIX have announced that they will be showing a record number of live games in India. SIX will televise up to 14 live NBA games every week during the 2013-14 regular season. They will launch a 'NBA Mornings at SIX' programme which will show back-to-back live games in India every single day!!! The season will tip-off on October 30, with the NBA Champion Miami Heat playing the Chicago Bulls at 5:30 AM IST, followed by the Los Angeles Clippers playing the Los Angeles Lakers at 8:00 AM IST. A day later, the much-hyped season opener for Vivek Ranadive's Kings will be shown live (to a large viewing party in Mumbai) against the Nuggets.

Yes. An NBA Double-Header. Every day. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!!!!!!

A total of 1,230 NBA games are played in a regular season. This year, you could catch nearly one-fourth of those games live on your TV sets in India, without needing to drift to the League Pass option - although I would still recommend it for the truest of you fans out there. Fans in India will have access to over 300 live regular season games, as well as NBA All-Star, Playoffs, and NBA Finals. Sony SIX will promote the daily six hour programming block across its network of channels and media platforms. A new basketball lifestyle program showcasing the sport off the court and featuring localized Indian content will also be launched and will air weekly in primetime.

"Sport is flourishing around the world with basketball leading the way due to its broad appeal and accessibility to viewers everywhere," said Prasana Krishnan, Business Head, Sony SIX. "This enhanced offering will give the fans a chance to watch their favorite team and stars consistently throughout the season. We are confident that our approach will open up an enormous opportunity in the ‘Breakfast’ time space for capturing viewership."

The best part of all this? Now, fans don't have to be force-fed only the mass popular/successful teams like the Heat, Lakers, Spurs, or Bulls. Take a look at the NBA's TV Schedule in India and you'll notice that only within the first week, fans will get a chance to watch a dozen different teams in action. This means that Indian fans will have a variety of teams and players to choose from on a regular basis instead of harping on same old LeBron-Kobe debates. It also means that fans of the less-popular teams like Bucks, Bobcats, Suns, or Magic will have many more opportunities to watch your favourite squad lose. And with ample number of Kings' games on schedule, it will be the right foundation to fulfill the vision of Sacramento's owners to see the Kings become India's "home team".

"Our partnership with Sony SIX has been vital to the growth of basketball in India, and this new, expanded programming will increase fan access to NBA basketball on multiple platforms," said Yannick Colaco, Managing Director - India, NBA. "Thanks to the support of Sony SIX, each season we are seeing interest in our game grow, allowing more opportunities to engage our fans whether through media, events, or grassroots programs."

According to Sony SIX, new apps, games and contests will also help reach fans via digital and social media throughout the upcoming season. The NBA Slam Dunk app on Facebook, which will launch within the first month of the season, will ask fans weekly questions and award points for correct answers, with the top point winner each month receiving NBA merchandise. The winner of the Most Valuable Fan, a trivia contest that will run across TV, digital, and social media, will be awarded a trip to the 2014 NBA All-Star and will be featured on a new basketball lifestyle show on Sony SIX.

Those dark-ages of 90s and early 2000s seem almost prehistoric now. For Indian fans, the NBA is now available live daily - twice! It's available on your fingertips and it's available in its full mass instead of just a tiny fraction. It's here to take over your life and make sure breakfast-time is never the same again. It's here to turn a whole generation of Indians into early risers to watch the live action. And it's going to recruit more NBA fans of the game in India than ever before.