Content creation platform Greenfly has agreed a new global multi-year, league-wide deal with North America’s National Basketball Association (NBA).
As part of the expanded agreement between the two parties, the firm will continue powering the flow of digital media assets across the league’s content ecosystem.
Greenfly will continue “elevating the digital and social media initiatives by the NBA on a global scale.”
The platform was initially responsible for collecting content for the women’s WNBA, but the tie-up evolved into a full-scale content management solution for the NBA, WNBA, G League, and NBA Africa.
Through the new tie-up, Greenfly will now “continue to power critical elements of the NBA’s content strategy.”
Greenfly enables the real-time content captured in arenas by the NBA’s social media and digital producers to flow into the league’s global NBA App. The Greenfly Platform’s content workflow system delivers behind-the-scenes access from courtside to the NBA App.
The partnership with Greenfly sees media assets automatically sorted into curated galleries and immediately made accessible to NBA athletes, league and team personnel, broadcasters, and for publication into the NBA App.
The NBA uses Greenfly to deliver content to players for their social media channels and allows the league to leverage fan-submitted content via the platform’s +Engage functionality.
The NBA has a longest-standing partnership with Greenfly that is nearing the six-year mark.
Throughout their existing partnership, Greenfly claims to have seen huge growth in active users across the NBA and its teams with more than 11,000 users now using the technology.
Earlier this month, NBA Equity, the league’s investment arm, invested in Greenfly as part of a $14 million venture capital funding round.
Daniel Kirschner, Greenfly chief executive, said: “The NBA has long set a standard for digital content engagement for sports leagues worldwide. Their belief in the pivotal role Greenfly plays in sports media is extremely empowering for our company and their investment marks a watershed moment for us.”
As well as the NBA, Greenfly also works with ice hockey’s NHL, baseball’s MLB, and women’s soccer's NWSL, and is headquartered in California. It works to aggregate, organize, and distribute short-form content for these properties across their ecosystem.
The company claims to have brought in over 40 partners during 2023, in addition to hiring multiple new members for its senior leadership team. These included a chief financial officer and a chief revenue officer.
Meanwhile, the NBA enjoyed a slight increase in viewership for the 2023-24 regular season.
The campaign averaged 1.09 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, TNT, and NBA TV, up 1% from last year (1.08 million) and the highest average in four years across all networks.
NBA TV made the difference in the year-over-year gain, as the network’s 107-game average of 330,000 increased 15% from 288,000 last year.
Across the league’s three main national TV broadcasters - ABC, ESPN, and TNT - this year’s average of 1.56 million represented a 1% decline from last year’s 1.59 million and was the lowest in three years.
The season average was significantly affected by the league’s record-low viewership for its marquee Christmas Day games.
The five-game Christmas slate averaged 2.85 million viewers, down 30% from last year. The games aired alongside an NFL triple-header that averaged 28.68 million and prevented ABC from carrying all five NBA games as it did last season.
With Christmas excluded, this year’s regular season average was 1.06 million across all four networks, up 5% from 1.01 million last year - and 1.53 million on the primary three, up 2% from last year’s 1.49 million.
Even at a record-low, Christmas produced two of the three largest audiences of the NBA season as the encounter between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers averaged 5.01 million and Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets drew 4.13 million.
The new In-Season Tournament generated the second-largest audience of the season as 4.58 million viewers watched the final between the Lakers and Indiana Pacers.
The Lakers secured their spot in the playoffs last night by defeating the New Orleans Pelicans in the Play-In Tournament to claim the number seven seed in the Western Conference. The Sacramento Kings beat the Golden State Warriors and will play the Pelicans for the final playoff berth.
In the Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament, the Philadelphia 76ers will face the Miami Heat tonight, while the Chicago Bulls take on the Atlanta Hawks.
The NBA Playoffs will begin on Saturday (April 20).
