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Jeremy Lin’s Presence In The NBA Playoffs Boosts Viewership And Merchandise Sales In China

While the Houston Rockets seek to overcome a winning deficit to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the NBA continues to seek significant increases in its viewership and merchandise sales numbers in China. The NBA partially has Jeremy Lin, the American basketball player born to Taiwanese emigrants, to thank for its recent market successes in China. Since joining the NBA last year with the Knicks, playing with the Rockets this season, and making the playoffs with both teams, Lin has helped fuel post-season NBA interest in China and Taiwan.

The NBA playoffs television schedule in China demarcates the nation’s growing fascination with the league and its players. Every NBA playoff game will be shown live in China, with six games being shown nationally per week on CCTV5 during the first and second rounds. Every game during the NBA Conference Finals and the Finals will be shown live on CCTV5. These games will be enhanced by a two-hour weekly NBA show that was launched by the Chinese network earlier this season.

Growth in television coverage is not the only benefit the NBA has seen in China since Lin joined the league last season. Rather, the NBA has also seen significant digital growth in China over the last two seasons. Last year, the NBA’s Chinese website experienced 3.3 billion page views. This year, that number is up by 34 percent, to 4.5 billion page views. Perhaps more impressive, though, are the number of video streams the NBA managed this year in China. During the 2012-13 regular season, total video streams for the NBA increased by 169 percent over the 2011-12 season, from 1.2 billion to 3.2 billion.

Merchandise sales may be the biggest area in which Lin’s presence in the NBA can be felt when it comes to impacting the markets in China and Taiwan. The NBA’s merchandise sales are up significantly in both China and Taiwan. Given that Lin’s parents were born in Taiwan, it is arguable that its citizens may feel a connection to him, leading them to purchase a greater amount of NBA merchandise than they would have prior to Lin playing in the league. While the NBA has seen a triple-digit increase in its Chinese merchandise revenues over the last five years, a significant portion of that increase has come since Lin joined the NBA two years ago. The NBA’s overall apparel sales are up by triple digits in both China and Taiwan for the first quarter of the 2013 fiscal year, as opposed to the first quarter of 2012. While the NBA has opened more than 30 NBA Shops this season in Taiwan, it expects its overall merchandising business to increase by triple digits there this season.

While much of the NBA’s growth in China, and particularly Taiwan, over the last two years can be attributed to Lin’s presence in the league, the NBA has seen significant gains elsewhere as well. This season marked the most-watched regular season on NBA TV and the second most-watched regular season on the NBA’s network partners: ABC, ESPN and TNT. Average viewership for the NBA during the 2012-13 regular season was up by 37 percent, and capped off a decade of viewership growth. Thus, whether the Rockets win tonight to keep their playoff hopes alive or go home after four games, the NBA is likely to continue seeing growth both domestically in the United States and abroad in China, Taiwan and other nations.