Sports Media Report
The National Basketball Association (NBA) and digital entertainment company BroadbandTV (BBTV) today announced their new YouTube channel, NBA Playmakers, which features a slate of original shows starring NBA players and digital influencers.
The NBA Playmakers channel is composed of original programming that mixes digital celebrities and their fanbases with NBA players and teams. Creators in the NBA Playmakers network will attend some of the league’s marquee events, including All-Star, the NBA Draft and NBA Summer League, granting them behind-the-scenes access to produce exclusive content.
“This community of creators has become part of the NBA family and has helped us connect with fans in a new way,” said Jeff Marsilio, NBA Senior Vice President, New Media Distribution. “We’re excited to launch this channel to further reach and engage our passionate fans through unique content.”
“We continue to build and grow NBA Playmakers to become the strongest digital ecosystem for the basketball community and culture,” said Ben Pickering, VP Strategic Business Development, BroadbandTV. “Producing compelling original content with professional athletes and top digital talent is an important strategic move for the NBA Playmakers brand and there is real value for all constituents, spanning digital influencers, NBA players, brands, advertisers and ultimately the viewer.”
With a variety of joint productions by the NBA and BBTV as well as influencer-produced shows, topics will include basketball culture, fitness, training, entertainment, fashion, gaming and more. The series also will be cross-promoted on the NBA’s social media outlets and YouTube channel, with a combined global community of 1.5 billion likes and followers. NBA-produced NBA Playmakers content includes an exciting lineup of shows and will feature creators, celebrities and NBA players.
Joint productions by the NBA and BBTV for Playmakers shows include:
- “Run That Back,” a reaction and commentary-driven series featuring content from NBA history, both recent and from NBA legends.
- “Jump Start,” a fireside chat series between Playmakers around skills, players, teams, and iconic moments with a comedic and personal bent.
- “On the Court,” an on-court training and casual games show featuring some of the most prominent creators on social media.
Influencer-produced NBA Playmakers shows include:
- “NBA Breakdown,” a technical and in-depth look at what makes NBA players so good at what they do, hosted by an NBA Playmakers skills expert and aided by NBA on-screen technology.
- “Best of Sneakers,” a weekly sneaker series hosted by an NBA Playmakers sneakerhead, diving into their top sneaker favorites of all time, at key events, or even from the week’s biggest games.
- “Community Mixtapes,” slickly stylized by Golden Hoops and MaxaMillion, these mixtapes feature a creator spin on their favorite moments from players, teams, and games throughout the season and throughout history.
“My YouTube channel ‘In the Lab’ is all about inspiring and motivating people through basketball. I’m excited to partner with BBTV and the NBA to create high caliber content to engage with our community and fanbase,” said InTheLab YouTube creator Devin Williams, who currently has 386K subscribers and 1.4M Monthly Views.
The BBTV and NBA relationship began in 2009, with BBTV managing fan-uploaded NBA content on YouTube. The two organizations then launched the NBA Playmakers network in 2016 to provide the creator community and NBA fans the opportunity to produce and distribute basketball culture content with exclusive access to NBA resources such as select NBA footage, tickets to games and special events, and merchandise.
