NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league will consider experimenting with scheduling games during the morning on weekdays to accommodate the international audience, according to USA Today’s Jeff Zilgitt. He said this in a press conference prior to Thursday’s Toronto Raptors-Orlando Magic game in London.
Adam Silver says NBA may eventually schedule morning games to accommodate international audiences
Commissioner Adam Silver says the league could experiment with scheduling weekday morning games so they will appear in prime time in international markets.
Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
The NBA has spent years and effort trying to become a global brand. The league has played exhibition and preseason games abroad for years and has recently began to schedule regular season games as well. The NBA has also made strides in establishing a presence in China and other parts of Asia.
The possibility of setting early starts to accommodate those markets would be a logical next step in the strategy to become an international league. The logistics, however, will be difficult to overcome. Early starts could cost the NBA American viewers who are simply not used to watching sports at those hours. China is 13 hours behind the East Coast, for example, so a game that would be available in primetime there would have to start early in the morning in the U.S.
Silver also said the league is exploring the possibility of playing a regular season game in Paris, but there are no plans for a European expansion.
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