One World Sports Partners with Infront to Deliver Chinese Basketball

One World Sports (OWS), North America’s leading Asian sports provider, has signed an exclusive agreement with Infront Sport & Media, the global marketing partner of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), to distribute CBA Professional League games on a multi-screen, multi-year basis in North America.

OWS will present two, same-day delay English language basketball games per week for the entire CBA Professional League season.

The CBA is a men’s professional basketball league in Asia and the fastest growing, most popular sports league in China. Founded in 1995, the League is composed of 17 teams.

OWS kicks off the 2011-2012 season on Nov. 20 and concludes in the end of March 2012. The comprehensive media rights package also includes the popular CBA All-Star Game to be staged in Feb. 2012. In the past two years, the entertaining event was a smash success in television ratings and the definite highlight of the entire season.

The CBA is a powerful addition to OWS’ exclusive presentations of the best sports from Asia. It joins a large stable of professional sports leagues including Asia’s major soccer leagues: Australian A-League, Japan J-League, Korean K-League, Chinese Super League. In addition OWS has exclusive rights to the One Asia Golf Tour, and the world’s major Table Tennis, Badminton and Squash events. In North America, the CBA League is exclusively on OWS, which is available on DISH Network.

Infront Sports & Media and the CBA have had a running partnership for 6 years that is proving to be the catalyst to realizing the full potential of Chinese basketball. 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. In addition to its involvement in the League, Infront acts as exclusive global marketing partner of the Chinese Basketball Associations for the country’s men’s and women’s national basketball teams — Team China.

Preston Bornman, Chief Operating Officer, ONE World Sports, said: “The Chinese Basketball Association is an exciting acquisition for OWS’ viewers. Basketball is a worldwide phenomenon and we are proud to offer Asia’s top professional basketball league to our American audiences. With two exclusive CBA games per week, OWS has assembled a powerful winter schedule that also includes the Hyundai Australian A-League soccer and the Japan Top League rugby.”

Ma Guoli, CEO & Managing Director of Infront China, added: “The fact that the CBA League will be delivered to the North American audience for the first time is proof not only of the growing popularity of the League among the world’s basketball fans but also the effective promotion of the games. Infront is delighted to work together with One World Sports to present the most powerful and vigorous images of the games to the audience in the region.”