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Kim Ludbrook / EPA / Shutterstock
March 22, 2019
Update There is 8m
By Spencer Feingold
The NBA has long been popular overseas in countries like China and Europe, but the league is now focusing on expanding its fan base in Africa.
Wednesday, the NBA announced a partnership with YouTube create a channel exclusively dedicated to fans in sub-Saharan Africa.
"First of all, it's about reaching the fans in Africa and creating the widest possible exposure," Matt Bradants, vice president of the NBA, told Cheddar.
The channel will broadcast live games and daily clips for fans. It will also offer special coverage to native African players, including Josh Okogie of Timberwolves, from Nigeria, and Joel Embiid of 76ers, from Cameroon.
The NBA Africa YouTube channel "will celebrate the impact of African players in the NBA as well as the league's long history of developing basketball at all levels on the continent and using the game as a platform to inspire and empower young Africans, "wrote the league.
According to Brabants, YouTube is the ideal partner to join the next generation of African fans who broadcast much of their online entertainment content. This is also ideal considering the infrastructure shortfalls in Africa.
"Among the technological challenges and bandwidth issues on the continent, we think that's an important place," he said about YouTube.
Unlike China, which has a strong and well-informed fan base, Brabant said fans in Africa are learning more about the game and the league.
We "want to make sure that we teach the sport to grbadroots fans so that they can understand what it's all about," Brabant said.
The first videos broadcast on the channel included a meeting between Embiid and South African hip-hop artist Cbadper Nyovest in Johannesburg and an interview with Hornet's Bismack Biyombo about opening a school in his Democratic Republic of Congo, his home country.
Last month, the NBA also announced the launch of a new African Basketball League in collaboration with the International Basketball Federation, the world's governing body of sport. The league will bring together existing clubs from across the continent.
Former President Obama, a well-known fan and basketball player, is directly involved in league planning.
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