Turner Sports, entering its 26th year of NBA Playoffs coverage, announced today its multi-platform plans for the 2010 NBA Playoffs across television, online, and mobile.
TNT and NBA TV will combine to air approximately 50 live playoff games, including TNT’s exclusive coverage of the entire Western Conference Finals. NBA TV will also provide up to 305 hours of original programming during the network’s 62 days of playoff coverage.
Set to stream one billion videos worldwide since the end of last season – a record for video views for the site – NBA.com will include companion coverage with mosaic live video streaming of three games in the first round, eight games in the second round, and the Western Conference Finals on TNT OverTime on NBA.com. NBA Mobile will offer NBA Game Time Playoff Edition featuring a playoff bracket and live play-by-play text.
“We are excited to bring fans around the world all of the excitement and drama of the NBA playoffs on so many different platforms,” said David Levy, president of ad sales, distribution and sports, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. “Through our extensive and unique NBA portfolio, we’ve established a great position to capture NBA fans at multiple destinations, allowing them to access video and information anywhere at anytime.”
TNT will look to build upon back-to-back years of double-digit ratings growth and record-breaking viewership for its coverage of last year’s NBA Playoffs. In 2009, the network averaged a 3.1 U.S. HH rating for 43 games, up 19 percent over the previous year (41 games), with 4,708,000 total viewers, a 24 percent increase (3,795,000). TNT averaged a 2.6 U.S. rating (2,937,000 households) during the 2008 NBA Playoffs coverage, up 14 percent in average total viewers (3,795,000) over the 43 games in 2007.