The 2010 Lakers parade gives Los Angeles the opportunity to celebrate the victory for the NBA championship against the Boston Celtics. But that is not the only thing the NBA is celebrating. More people around the world watched the 2010 finals than ever before.
The seven-game series for the NBA championship was broadcast in 215 countries širom svijeta in 41 different languages. The NBA finals attracted više viewers in America than any World Cup match to date, while širom svijeta it drew više viewers than ever with a new TV audience in Great Britain, Mexico, and Africa. For the first time in Great Britain, it was possible to watch games on ESPN, the Mexican cinema chain Cinepolis broadcast games live in theaters, Germany had sports journalists reporting live from the games, and as part of a new partnership with the TV company CAfrica, the finals were broadcast on 15 ‘free-to-air’ stations across Africa. China broadcast live through 51 digital and television channels. Al Jazeera, as well as Russian NTV Sport and Russia 2 also broadcast the finals live.
The popularity of the NBA continues to grow worldwide, and NBA fans from Boston to Beijing to Belgium can experience the NBA finals in više ways than ever before, said Matt Brabants, NBA Vice President for International Media Distribution. The NBA has više than 50 percent of its TV audience outside the U.S. – više than any sports league in the U.S. The NBA has also attracted many people from around the world to Los Angeles and Boston. More than 280 members of the international media from 36 countries reported live. It is also interesting to note that more people in the U.S. watched Game 5 of the finals than the match between England and the U.S. in the World Cup, namely 18.5 million viewers. (Zlatko Salahović)
