Photo from the NBA
MANILA, Philippines—The NBA currently has 71.1 million followers on Instagram alone—way more than the NFL, MLB and NHL combined.
Already a global empire, the NBA continues to further grow its audience.
The league on Tuesday announced the launch of its redesigned app, which provides wall-to-wall content including behind-the-scenes access to players and teams.
The launch also comes just in time for the 2022-23 season, which tips off on October 18.
“There will also be content generated by the players themselves,” said Bob Carney, NBA senior vice president, digital & social content, who also mentioned that so much of the league’s social media consumption comes from the Philippines.
“What’s become really great is that many of our players are already documenting this. some are documenting themselves on their phones. We very much want to work with our players to send us behind-the-scenes content—content that our fans have no access to. Whether it’s at home or training, we want that content,” he added.
Carney said the app will provide a “360-degree view of who that player is on and off the court.”
“What we can do now with our new platform is do that at scale. We plan to really work with our fans, especially our fans who are going at the games. It gives us so many more unique vantage points of all the amazing moments that are happening at our arena every night.”
The NBA App is a product of NBA Digital, the league’s joint venture with Turner Sports.
Aside from the app, the league has also launched a new global membership program called NBA ID which offers fans benefits and rewards from the league, teams and its partners. NBA ID will link a fan’s experiences across existing products like NBA League Pass and NBA Pick’Em.
A key part of the NBA App’s new look is its “For You” experience which allows fans to tap into a social-like vertical video experience–with vertical scrolling–that features real-time highlights of all NBA games in progress.
NBA League Pass and NBA TV will also be integrated into the NBA App.