Mumbai : The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Suditi Industries Ltd., a long-time leader in apparel exports, today announced a multi-year merchandising partnership to launch a range of NBA fanwear apparel in India.
The new NBA fanwear apparel will feature the widest range of NBA merchandise available in India, includingan assortment of dedicated youth and adult products from all 30 NBA teams. NBA fanwear apparel will be available in department stores nationwide,including Shoppers Stop, Central, Lifestyle & Brand Factory Pan-India,and throughe-commerce sites Jabong – operator of NBAStore.in, the NBA’s official online store in India – and Myntra.
“As our fanbase continues to grow exponentially, we have also seen a rising demand for NBA merchandise beyond our core oncourt products from Nike and Spalding,” said Siddharth Chury, NBA India Associate Vice President of Global Partnerships. “We are excited to partner with Suditi Industries, a leading expert in the licensing space, toexpand the range of NBA products available to fans.”
“The NBA is one of the most prestigious sports organisations globally and it’s an exciting opportunity for us to partner with them and bring exclusive merchandise to fans in India,” said Pawan Agarwal, Chairman & Managing Director, Suditi Industries Ltd.“Our goal is to fully penetrate the Indian market and to make NBA fanwear apparel more widely available for fans across the country.”
For the second consecutive season, the NBA will schedule a weekly game for live primetime broadcast in India every Sunday evening on SONY TEN 1. This builds on the league’s NBA Primetime Sundays campaign, a weekly live game on Sunday evenings in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. The five weekly primetime games airing from March 10 – April 7 in India will feature some of the most popular teams in the league including the L.A. Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors.
In conjunction with the primetime games, the NBA has launched a video/campaign which highlights the differences of watching and enjoying the game in the morning and at primetime. The film features the journey of a fan who usually starts off watching the game alone on his couch with a cup of coffee however during NBA Primetime Sundays, given the evening time band, his experience of watching the game changes where he is seen in his stylish sneakers and apparel, cheering for his teams with friends at a local bar. The video captures the joy of a fan being able to watch NBA Games at primetime along with game highlights from the season.
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The NBA and sports cluster of SPN will continue customized, local live NBA wraparound show ‘NBA Primetime Sunday’ before and after the prime time games to bring viewers closer to the game. The program will be hosted by a panel of basketball experts that will provide analysis and insight on all the latest NBA news. In India, more than 120M viewers tuned-in to NBA programming over the course of the 2017-18 NBA season and more than 3.9M viewers tuned-in to the 2018 NBA Sunday games.
Please find below the full schedule of the NBA Primetime Sunday games:
| Date | Time | Games |
| 10th March 2019 | 09:00 p.m. | Chicago Bulls Vs Detroit Pistons |
| 17th March 2019 | 09:00 p.m. | L.A. Lakers Vs New York Knicks |
| 24th March 2019 | 09:00 p.m. | LA Clippers vs New York Knicks |
| 31st March 2019 | 09:30 p.m. | Milwaukee Bucks vs Atlanta Hawks |
| 7th April 2019 | 09:00 p.m. | Miami Heat vs Toronto Raptors |
The NBA’s partnership with Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) began in the 2012-13 season and includes more than 350 live games in English and Hindi each season.
