Collected China, Media, Basketball vs. Ping Pong Readings

US beat China in Hot Ticket Game

 * Reuters August 10, 2008
 * "In one of the hottest ticket contests of the Beijing Games, giant Chinese centre Yao Ming triggered a deafening roar from a sellout crowd of 18,000 after scoring the opening basket."
 * POPULARITY -> "The blockbuster Group B opener was likely the most-viewed sporting contest ever in China, with hundreds of millions believed to be watching on television."
 * "This is something I will treasure as a memory for the rest of my life," Yao told reporters. "It felt great, all the flags and cheering."

Yao: China's Gift to Basketball

 * From Christian Science Monitor
 * Jan 3, 2006
 * Review of Book "Operation Yao Ming"
 * "Yao is quite likely to remain the center of attention in the United States, China and other nations for at least a decade to come.

I look forward to following his career from now on - not because I care about whether his team wins or loses, but because he is a fascinating manifestation of the globe looking smaller, for better and for worse."

NBA Building fan base in Basketball-Happy China

 * From USA Today - October 11, 2007
 * First "Basketball-happy China" is an interesting phrase
 * "The nine-day tour will take the two teams to Shanghai and Macao for three exhibition games and various community events. "
 * "The NBA hopes to use the games to tap into an enormous market that is desperate to wrap its arms around professional basketball. China's hunger for anything and everything NBA is emblematic of the world's growing fascination with basketball.

Four NBA teams — Boston, Memphis, Minnesota and Toronto — are playing games this preseason in Italy, England, Turkey and Spain. When Orlando and Cleveland reach China on Sunday it will be the NBA's third foray into Asia since 1979."
 * "No place is that demand for the NBA greater than in China. Basketball has taken over as the country's top sport with an estimated 300 million people — the equivalent of the USA's population — playing basketball in China. "
 * THAT's 300 Million People PLAYING basketball
 * According to the NBA:
 * Of the 500 million people in China who are 25 years old or younger, 83% claim to be fans of the NBA on some level.
 * Last season, television viewership in China surpassed 1 billion for a second consecutive season.
 * Almost 400 million pieces of memorabilia and jerseys were sold in China last year.
 * Yao only ranks sixth in China in jersey sales. Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, Dwyane Wade and James move the most products in China.


 * Last point particularly interesting -> it's not even just about Yao as a sports icon

They Think its All Over

 * From the Guardian - December 6th, 2008
 * "We are now in the midst of a second round of sporting globalisation. It is a more voluntary affair, requiring willing sellers and willing buyers, so Britain's sporting exports are facing much stiffer competition."
 * Frames the discussion from Britain, and her football prize THE PREMIERSHIP "In the corridors of the London meeting, organised by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the most excited talk focused on the phenomenal growth of China and India, where millions more people each year have enough cash in their pockets to start spending it on new forms of leisure."
 * "China represents an even bigger and underexploited market. Chinese consumers have been raised on table tennis and badminton, but as far as global team sports are concerned, they represent a virtually blank slate. "

Fall of Football

 * "in recent years the popularity of football has plummeted, taking down with it the sport's leading brand, the Premier League. It has been displaced by basketball and its flagship, America's National Basketball Association (NBA). An independent poll carried out this summer by a market research company, TNS Sport, found that nearly 12% of the urban Chinese population are now playing basketball, twice the number playing football."
 * "The international football body, Fifa, estimates there are 270 million people around the world playing football. Its basketball equivalent boasts 450 million. That again may be an exaggeration, but even conservative estimates put the number at 300 million. The demographics suggest that dominance is likely to grow. One in three Chinese youths plays the sport. "

Media & Development

 * "In October, the NBA announced plans to design and develop 12 new arenas in partnership with the stadium builder Anschutz Entertainment Group. Most importantly of all, the Chinese government declared its intention two years ago to turn basketball into the national game by building a court in every single one of China's 800,000 villages - part of the "sunshine policy" of making its increasingly sedentary population take some exercise."
 * "The success of basketball in China represents one of the most stunning marketing coups of our time. Fourteen NBA games are broadcast live every week on state television and 51 regional stations. In January this year, to cement the NBA's market dominance, it set up NBA China, with investment from a Disney-owned sports network and four Chinese banks and trade groups."
 * YAO -> "A Chinese superstar has emerged in the NBA, Yao Ming, of the Houston Rockets, who attracts interest and audiences around the country."
 * STERN made the Media deal BEFORE major interest -> "The NBA has been patiently building its market for more than two decades. In 1987, the NBA commissioner, David Stern, turned up in China with a bag full of match videos to show the bosses at state television and was given a warm welcome. Stern offered a revenue-share deal."

Merchandising

 * 13 yr old kid from a w-> "His short-term goal is to own an authentic NBA jersey bearing the name of his hero, Kobe Bryant."
 * "There are two NBA stores already and 1,000 more are planned across China."
 * "Nike, another major outlet for basketball kit, seem equally unconcerned about knock-offs. They say they reached $1bn in revenue last year, a year ahead of projection, and are planning 6,000 stores in total."

Future

 * "The great prize is becoming a global league."

NBA Announces Formation of NBA China

 * NBA.com Press Release from Jan. 14, 2008
 * "The National Basketball Association today announced the formation of NBA China, a new entity that will conduct all of the league’s businesses in Greater China."
 * "The NBA currently has relationships with 51 Chinese telecasters including a partnership of more than 20 years with national broadcaster CCTV, has organized hundreds of touring basketball events for fans and currently maintains 16 marketing partnerships with a combination of Chinese-based corporations and U.S.-based multinationals. "
 * IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIP with National Organization CCTV
 * "NBA.com/China has become the most popular single sports site in China and NBA is consistently the most searched sports term on Baidu.com, the top search engine in China."
 * "Five strategic partners will invest $253 million to acquire 11% of the company in preferred equity. The strategic partners are an elite group of exceptionally prominent and successful entities: ESPN, a division of The Walt Disney Company, Bank of China Group Investment, Legend Holdings Limited, Li Ka Shing Foundation and China Merchants Investments. "

After Two Years, NBA China on Steady Course

 * From Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal - May 24, 2010
 * “In the two years since we started, we have had double-digit revenue growth [in NBA China],” said Heidi Ueberroth, the globetrotting president of NBA International.
 * "Mediawise, NBA China is doing a wonderful job, but to really capture a large fan base and more sponsors, the NBA is going to have to have more live programming,” said Terry Rhoads, managing director of Zou Marketing, a Shanghai-based sports consultancy.
 * "the NBA has surpassed any other U.S. sports property in expanding not just its China footprint but its overall international growth, as the league has offices operating in 16 countries."

Media

 * "The major growth has been as a media property. The league today counts 51 media deals in the country and this year saw the launch of the League Pass in China that allowed for streaming games live online for the first time."
 * "Since the creation of NBA China, the number of page views on NBA.com/China has grown by 60 percent and video usage on the website has increased 385 percent compared with the 2007-08 season as NBA fans in China begin adopting more consistent viewing patterns of NBA programming."

Merchandising

 * “Similar with the U.S., Chinese companies promote the fact that they are the official computer, television or cell phone of the NBA, and branded association has created value for them as well as deliver us a whole new group of consumers,” Silver said.

Pro Basketball Ups its China Efforts

 * Wall Street Journal - Oct 17, 2008
 * "The new online content will be in addition to the NBA’s continuing partnership with CCTV to broadcast four games a week in China. When asked if the boost in video offerings online would cannibalize the league’s television ratings, Ms. Ueberroth said studies in other markets have shown that richer Internet content has historically “complemented” what is shown on television, often driving more viewers to traditional broadcasts."

China Embraces Basketball

 * USA Today August 7, 2008
 * Sports Analyst said ""Except for (LeBron) James and Wade, the 'Dream Seven' team is not so well known in China. It needs the highlights on TV first."
 * Demonstrating the role of the media
 * "The NBA is a very cool sport," said college student and English major Huang Guodong, 22. "It's the fashion, the attitude and the power."
 * Cultural Change?

Remembering the 1979 NBA China Tour

 * From the Washington Post

Ping-Pong? That's So Old China

 * Washington Post August 14, 2008 -
 * MEDIA CHANGES -> "Millions continue to call ping-pong China's national game. But for younger generations, whose sports horizons have been broadened by satellite TV, Internet chat rooms and star-making advertising now available in China, there is less interest. "
 * "Basketball player Yao Ming of the NBA's Houston Rockets is so revered that he led the Chinese team as it paraded in these Olympics' Opening Ceremonies."
 * "We always win all the ping-pong games -- there's no suspense," said Li Sufan, 24, a middle school teacher leaving the China-Croatia game with her brother. "My students prefer to play basketball -- for them, it's a symbol of coolness."
 * "Still, the Chinese can find a table in nearly any school or public park. "

China Broods over Ping-Pong Success

 * Asia Times Online May 14, 2009
 * "CCTV's live broadcasts of table tennis games used to be as popular as live National Basketball Association matches from the United States, said Jiang Heping, CCTV's sports director. But there was no suspense this time as the Chinese team was too strong. "The audiences are not interested because of the huge gap between Chinese and foreign players," Jiang said. "

Olympic Ticket Prices

 * From Chinese Consulate of Manchester
 * Excepting the opening and closing ceremonies, Basketball and Table Tennis were the most expensive tickets.
 * But Basketball had top prices of $200 more than the Table Tennis

Other Considerations

 * FIBA.com -- site is in English with only one other language option - Chinese

Piracy

 * From NY Times Article
 * “We never felt that the jewel in our crown, the live games, would be vulnerable,” said Ayala Deutsch, senior vice president and chief intellectual property counsel at the National Basketball Association.
 * Piracy and popularity?
 * "The N.B.A.’s popularity in China, thanks in large part to the star power of Yao Ming, the Chinese star on the Houston Rockets, has made its games some of the most popular for pirates and viewers. A single game last year between the Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks drew 1.1 million viewers, mostly in China, over the China-based service Sopcast. // As a result, the N.B.A. has gone so far as to form a partnership with two peer-to-peer streaming services in China to offer legitimate streaming of live games."

Shanghai, 1962. © Lu Houmin
 * Mao Zedong playing ping pong,

From readings At Cambridge