Adam Silver Talks NBA's Global Reach with New Broadcast Deals

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Transcript

00:00All right, we are joined by the Commissioner of the National Basketball Association, Mr. Silver.

00:04Thank you so much for joining us.

00:06So let's talk about this new broadcast deal that you've got coming up.

00:08Just a month from now, NBC, Amazon joining the fray.

00:12Is this an exciting new endeavor that's happening for the NBA?

00:15I mean, you got to interview Maria Taylor.

00:17And how exciting is that, that she's going to be hosting our new broadcast on NBC and Peacock.

00:22We're thrilled.

00:23Obviously, we have Disney and ESPN returning.

00:25We've been an incredible partnership over two decades.

00:27And Amazon, in addition to NBC, Peacock, I think it brings a lot of new energy to telecasts.

00:34For the first time, all of our games are going to be streamed nationally, globally for that matter, too.

00:40That's a really big deal.

00:41And I think the next phase is going to be adding all kinds of different optionality to these telecasts.

00:47So, you know, with streaming comes an ability to add different feeds, other audio, gaming, shopping, social media chatter.

01:01I mean, I think it's the next level of engagement for our fans.

01:05So we're thrilled.

01:06Coming off a very exciting NBA championship, going into this season, it feels like there's so many great things the NBA is doing.

01:11Can you give us a little bit about what you're most excited about as commissioner that people can look forward to this season?

01:16I'd say, well, what I just talked about, I think, again, at the end of the day, we're a media company.

01:21That's really what scales.

01:22Finding new and different ways to reach fans is really exciting.

01:25I think another initiative I've been spending a lot of time on is a potential league in Europe.

01:29The deputy commissioner and chief operating officer, Mark Tatum, is sort of taking the lead on that.

01:34But I've been spending a lot of time in Europe talking to potential stakeholders, new partners around that league,

01:41seeing opportunities of the level of interest in the marketplace.

01:44There's some incredible basketball being played in Europe.

01:47You know, our last seven MVPs have all been international players.

01:52So we'll see.

01:53I mean, it's still a lot of work to go there.

01:55But I think everyone at the league is really excited about that.

01:58You know, by the way, women's basketball is growing leaps and bounds in Europe as well.

02:02It's sort of parallel to talking about an NBA Europe.

02:05There's a notion of a WNBA Europe, too.

02:07So there's this massive amount of basketball being played on a global basis.

02:12I'll just finish by saying in the next two weeks, I'm going to both Abu Dhabi and Macau for a preseason game.

02:19So other of my colleagues, we're playing in Melbourne, Australia, preseason.

02:24Later on this year, we're going to be in Mexico City, then to London, then to Berlin.

02:29So it's a big world out there and a lot of basketball is being played.