Mobile and Internet

Ueberroth wants to make the most of information technology in the country with the largest number of mobile phone users and the second largest population of netizens.

She says the NBA is in discussion with China Mobile, which has about 300 million subscribers, on how to use mobile phones to connect NBA fans.

China Mobile already works with international giants News Corp and MSN to bring their Internet content such as music videos, online chat and news to China Mobile users.

Last year, the NBA launched online broadcasts of games on its official Chinese website in partnership with the Chinese broadband sports Web portal Nusports. These were the NBA's first webcasts.

At first, online viewers could only watch one game a week. Now, Nusports shows three live games a week and viewers can watch clips of past games and form online communities.

The website's traffic has reached 128 million page views a month, which is one-fifth of the NBA's world total.

Internet-mobile phone co-operation reaches the younger demographics the NBA wants. It also allows the association to build a closer relationship with young basketball fans, which is almost impossible with TV's one-way transmission.

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