The NBA is helping YouTubers create longer basketball videos

Other sports leagues and organizations such as the PGA and WNSL have recently increased their involvement in the creative space, and the NBA's move to provide creators with gaming materials follows a similar initiative launched by the NFL last year was called.

Game footage is typically reserved for broadcasters, and without the resources or wherewithal to license clips, sports creators have instead sought to explore new formats like “watchalongs,” where users can watch creators watch a game in real time tell and comment without showing live recordings. However, the NBA grants creators access to 25,000 hours of game footage from the last 10 years of basketball, from 2014 to the 2023/24 season.

“The idea here is that if we can empower a very select group on YouTube, we can help us reach new fans worldwide,” said Bob Carney, SVP of social and digital content at the NBA. “These creators become like an extension of the league.” The NBA did not say whether the creators could use the footage on platforms other than YouTube.

The NBA hired an AI software company, WSC Sports, to index the footage so editors could search for and select specific plays across the library. This also includes footage of pre- and post-game analysis and press conferences as originally broadcast. According to Carney, the NBA is also giving them access to WSC's AI-powered video editing suite. Financial terms were not provided.

“I honestly believe it will elevate all basketball content,” said Nick Valenta, CEO of sports-focused creative agency Mādin.

“There are a million amazing stories in the NBA,” he added. “The ability to show the footage instead of just finding a clever workaround… [it means the creators] will be able to do it now [explore] them in a more emotionally impactful way.”

Although the NBA has a 200-person live creator correspondent network similar to that of the NFL or WNSL, the NBA initially shares the decade's footage with only six YouTube creators: Thinking Basketball (599,000 subscribers), Swish Cultures (201,000 subscribers). ), By Any Means Basketball (478,000 subscribers), CoshReport (503,000 subscribers), MaxaMillion711 (413,000 subscribers) and Golden Hoops (1.96 million subscribers).

Carney declined to provide details about the NBA's business relationships with individual developers, but Kevin Esteves, vice president of digital content strategy and analysis, said the league will continue to “recruit” developers for the program.

The NBA will review the content produced with the footage before releasing it, Esteves said. He suggested discouraging developers from uploading entire games to YouTube and instead encouraging them to produce long-form original content. “The intent is to create content that we would consider transformative,” he said.

Consumption habits on YouTube, as well as other video-first platforms like TikTok, have favored longer videos in recent years. The NBA's move to make more footage available to creators is intended to help basketball YouTubers get in on that momentum, Carney said.

“[Over 45%] Most of the consumption we see on YouTube is through television screens, so the content needs to be longer. “You need people who can create this longer-form content,” Carney noted, pointing to internal YouTube numbers on video consumption.

“The ability to stitch together a decade’s worth of content means the possibilities are endless,” he added.

There is also a lot of this for the NBA. Supporting basketball developers will make the game “more accessible to more people,” said Sarah Gerrish, senior director of influencers and creators at creative agency Movers + Shakers. Creator-generated basketball content could help “turn more casual fans of the NBA into more passionate fans of the sport,” she added.

“These creators have [a]unique authenticity that traditional marketing obviously sometimes lacks,” said Joey Chowaiki, chief operating officer and co-founder of Open Influence, an influencer agency. “By leveraging YouTubers, the NBA can connect on a more personal level and engage a new wave of viewers.”

Of course, working to make its audience broader and deeper also makes the NBA more attractive to advertisers and sponsors. Not that it needs much help — the NBA has consistently drawn large television viewers in recent years, and this week Nike extended its contract with the league as its exclusive equipment supplier for 12 years.

Still, this is an example of a sports league fixing the roof while the sun shines. “When you see organizations like the NBA using the creator economy, it creates a lot of interest,” concluded Chowaiki.