The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced today that the 2002 NBA Finals will be broadcast in Spanish on television, radio and the Internet. The league unveiled a comprehensive U.S. Hispanic marketing initiative in February at the NBA All-Star 2002 ‘Latin Night’ festivities.
The NBA Finals will be available in Spanish in the U.S. through the following:
Ø Television — NBC’s national telecasts of all NBA Finals games will be available in Spanish language through Secondary Audio Programming (SAP). Listeners can choose this secondary audio signal through their television, a stereo or VCR equipped to receive SAP signals, or an SAP receiver.
Ø Radio — Latino Broadcasting Company (LBC) — the leading producer of Spanish language sports, news and entertainment in the U.S. Hispanic radio industry — will make all 2002 NBA Finals games available nationally to more than 100 Spanish language broadcasters throughout the U.S.
Ø Internet — NBA.com and NBA.com/espanol will provide live Spanish language audio simulcasts of all NBA Finals games. The site has offered audio broadcasts of several games in Spanish during the NBA Playoffs and has carried one Spanish ‘game of the week’ throughout the season.
‘We are proud to provide the NBA Finals to Hispanic fans across the United States through a variety of Spanish language media,’ said Arturo Nunez, Managing Director of NBA Latin America. ‘Our Hispanic fan base has grown tremendously over the years and we look forward to bringing our fans some of the best NBA competition this June.’
Currently, eight NBA teams have Spanish language radio broadcast packages in their local markets and, in addition to the popular NBA.com/espanol Web site, five NBA teams provide Spanish content as part of their Web sites.
With more than 38 million Hispanics living in the United States and 11 NBA teams located in the top 10 U.S. Hispanic markets, the NBA has one of the largest and fastest growing Hispanic fan bases in U.S. pro sports.
Approximately 64% of Hispanics are NBA fans and Hispanics make up 13% of the total NBA fan base. Hispanics make up a larger percentage of the total NBA fan base than they do for any of the other three major U.S. pro sports leagues (ESPN Sports Poll–Full Year 2001).
The number of Hispanic/Latino players in the NBA has increased every year with 6 players on NBA rosters for the 2001-02 season — Rookie of the Year Pau Gasol (Memphis Grizzlies/native of Spain); Felipe López (Minnesota Timberwolves/ native of Dominican Republic); Eduardo Nájera (Dallas Mavericks/ native of Mexico); Oscar Torres (Houston Rockets/native of Venezuela); Milt Palacio (Phoenix Suns/ native of Belize) and Carlos Arroyo (Denver Nuggets/native of Puerto Rico). Their emergence has aided the NBA’s efforts to build on the growing Hispanic fan base.
The 2002 NBA Finals begin on Wednesday, June 5th, and will showcase the Western Conference Champions (either the L.A. Lakers or the Sacramento Kings) facing off against the Eastern Conference Champions (either the Boston Celtics or the New Jersey Nets).
For more information on the NBA and exclusive Spanish-language content, visit www.nba.com/espanol.
http://www.nba.com/playoffs2002