Spirit of the sport and the league

The CBA League is the undisputed premium property in basketball and one of China’s most popular team sports. Not only is the CBA League the fastest growing and most popular Chinese sports league, it is also the largest sports league in Asia. The future is bright as more young people are encouraged to take up basketball as a result of the national team’s success as well as more effective promotion of the sport at every level.

The rising popularity of the CBA League not only attracts millions of fans and achieves growing TV ratings in China, it also continues to appeal to foreign players, sponsors and broadcasters.

Continuing the momentum of the previous season, the 2011/2012 CBA League regular season will open in November 2011 and run until February 2012, showcasing a total of 272 games with 17 participating clubs throughout China. The regular season will be followed by the most entertaining CBA All-Star Weekend from 17 to 19 February 2012 with the playoffs ending on 28 March 2012. Approximately 50 foreign players, many of the from the United States, have been recruited by the CBA clubs – reflecting the growing appeal of the league and the high calibre of basketball talent as a result.

Rights opportunities
The joint-venture between Infront and the CBA has been running for six years and is proving to be the catalyst to realising the full potential of the league.

Infront’s role is in-depth and involves every aspect of marketing the commercial rights and developing the CBA League to raise international awareness of Chinese basketball. Infront owns the media rights for all CBA matches both globally and nationally and in addition takes care of the development of the new media platform.

As a result of Infront’s parallel role with the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), there is a unique opportunity for broadcasters and sponsors to focus on Chinese basketball as a dynamic product. The synergy between Team China and the CBA League can be taken advantage of - exploiting Chinese basketball to its maximum potential as a powerful vehicle to reach Chinese consumers.

Media production prospects
Infront together with the CBA works in close collaboration to upgrade the television production quality and distribution as well as produce the live TV signal and international sound for most games. The production involves an average of 11 cameras per game capturing all the action of the sport.
For the 2011/2012 season, 20 television channels will broadcast the CBA games across the country, with CCTV-5 featuring the match of the day from each round. Other local channels will also broadcast the home games of their regional teams live, whilst the CBA League’s Official Partner Sohu.com plans to offer most of the live televised matches through its digital platform.

Background appeal
Basketball is the most popular televised sport in China. The CBA League in particular is accruing tremendous popularity as the most fashionable, indigenous competition featured on Chinese television with every game being shown live across the country. 

The 2010/11 CBA season achieved an 11.5 per cent increase in audience figures compared to the previous year – 2,461 hours of total broadcast time and a cumulative audience of 515 million. For the finals a cumulative audience of 60 million tuned in to watch the action live on TV.

The 2011 CBA All-Star Game held at the MasterCard Centre in Beijing was also a huge success, achieving a record television audience with more than 100 million fans tuning in. Additional exposure from new media channels further substantiates the popularity of the league — the CBA official website counted 5.4 million unique visits and 86.7 million page views during the 2011 CBA All-Star Weekend.

Upcoming Events

CBA League - Regular Season
20 November 2011 – 14 February 2012

CBA All-Star Game
17 – 19 February 2012

CBA League - Playoffs
22 February - 28 March 2012