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SCMP Reporter

The National Basketball Association, the  premier North American basketball  league, will partner   Li Ka-shing's media firm, Tom Group, to provide free live online broadcasts of  games  in Hong Kong and on the mainland.
NBA China and Hong Kong websites will  show live daily games during the regular season, while Tom will produce half-hour highlights  for those sites and CETV, its satellite television channel.
The portals will also provide a networking platform such as message boards.
Tom  is the NBA's third content partner on the mainland.
'We need  a company like Tom Group, which has a publishing, television and digital platform, to extend the content offering to  more than 300 million fans and  build a social network after we launched the official portal in China five years ago,' said NBA commissioner David Stern in Beijing  on Saturday.
Tom  chief executive Ken Yeung Kwok-mung said advertisers  were seeking a cross-media platform that could reach potential customers through digital channels, rather than  just traditional broadcasters.
'As the economic downturn  approaches, brand owners will focus on  return  on investments  in marketing campaigns,' Mr Yeung said.
'Digital media like internet and wireless services  provide accurate marketing for advertisers seeking to reach their target customer segment  and  increase their revenue.'
NBA president Heidi Ueberroth said the online video broadcasting arrangement on the mainland should  attract  a bigger audience to the games and generate new advertising and sponsorship revenue despite the financial turmoil.
'The online media and traditional television broadcasting should help  boost the total number of  NBA viewers on the mainland,'  she said.
The NBA internet portal recorded 385 million visitors from  Greater China  last season, who accounted for 30 per cent of its global traffic. The NBA is also building arenas on the mainland  to further increase the popularity of its games.
The mainland is  the NBA's biggest market outside the US,  driven by Chinese basketball stars such as Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian. 'We have been adding employees and resources on the mainland  for the long term so as to grow our infrastructure and operation to extend the NBA experience to all the fans here,' Ms Ueberroth said.



NBA-Tom  deal  will offer live feeds of games online