2009-2010 online and smart phone programming a drop in the bucket compared to 2010-2011 results
Online and mobile programming is packing the wallop of a Blake Griffin monster jam for the National Basketball Association (NBA), as traffic surged 69 percent during the first week of the 2011 NBA Playoffs, according to a report in the trade publication broadcastingcable.com.
The spike in professional hoops traffic includes more than 7 million users visiting the standard NBA.com online portal, as well as downloads of NBA Game Time applications for mobile devices increasing 86 percent during week No. 1 of the playoffs.
A jaw-dropping number in the early traffic is the 114 million videos viewed on NBA.com, which is a 93 percent increase from the like period a year ago. The huge spike is consistent with spikes experienced during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, and indicates that fewer consumers than ever tie themselves down to coaxial cable or satellite dish to watch premier sports events.
The 2011 NBA Playoffs builds on The Association’s best year in online and mobile sports programming to date. More than 1.9 billion videos were viewed on NBA.com during the season, according to NBA spokesman John Acunto in a Los Angeles Times report.
In response to rising online and smart phone demand, the NBA is stepping up social networking efforts. The NBA’s Facebook love has swelled to 8.2 million from 2 million last year. Combined with Twitter, it is estimated 100 million people regularly follow the happenings of the NBA on computers or smart phones today.
