NBA Expands into Caribbean With Five-Year Digicel Deal

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has agreed a five-year partnership with Caribbean sports cable network Digicel.

The marketing and broadcast partnership between both parties will include television broadcast rights across 28 countries in the Caribbean.

Up to 48 regular season games will be broadcast on Digicel Sportsmax and its affiliate CDN Sportsmax in the Dominican Republic.

As part of the deal Digicel will launch NBA.com/Caribbean, the first official NBA online destination for Caribbean fans

“It’s a massive deal for us; we haven’t really got into the American sports as we are heavily into the European sports. We know how popular the NBA is and we know people love basketball, so for us this is very important,” said President and CEO of Digicel Sportsmax Oliver McIntosh, speaking to the Jamaica Observer.

“This will help to round out our content [because] a lot of our content comes across, especially in the mornings and afternoons. So if we look to fill up our evening schedule, this is by far and wide one of the most popular pieces of content and one of the most watched leagues in the world, so it’s a massive move for us,” he added.

Also speaking to the Jamaica Observer, Philippe Moggio, NBA’s Senior Vice-President of Latin America said: “We see the penetration and relevance that Digicel Sportsmax has in the Caribbean, and this is the best way for us to bring our game closer to our fans and to expand the base of fans that we have.

“We have a very strong commitment to grow the game of basketball, and the Caribbean as a region is a very strategic market for us. So we know that we can get that scale and relevance through this great partnership.”

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