Amp'd Mobile teams with NBA for live TV

Amp'd Mobile announced a new content distribution agreement with the National Basketball Association to deliver a live stream of the league's NBA TV cable network to subscriber handsets. The content package includes live NBA games, daily news, video highlights and original NBA TV programs including veteran sportscaster Ahmad Rashad's "Tuesday Night with Ahmad." Amp'd Mobile also announced it will extend its partnership with cable's CSTV Networks to continue broadcasting live NCAA basketball matchups from the Atlantic 10 Conference, Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference; in addition, the MVNO will partner with basketball magazines Dime and Bounce to offer live and VOD content from street basketball tournaments including the venerable Entertainer's Basketball Classic at Rucker Park event.

"Amp'd Mobile's schedule of live basketball programming includes live games from the NBA, NCAA and top summer leagues that will span the entire year and allow basketball fans anytime access to their favorite teams," Amp'd senior VP of content development and programming Seth Cummings said in a prepared statement. "We're especially proud to deliver the first live broadcast of a U.S. major league sports game to mobile, along with a comprehensive and diverse offering of basketball games."

Of all the major team sports, basketball seems the best suited for the mobile TV platform: The action takes place in a relatively limited space, the teams are small, the rock is big and the ebb and flow of the game is easy to follow. Moreover, after a long post-Jordan fallow period, a new generation of superstars including Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony have made the NBA genuinely exciting again. Given the existing Amp'd demographic, the service should thrive.

For more on Amp'd Mobile's hoops deals:
- read this release [1]

Related articles:
- MTV, Amp'd Mobile in content development deal [2]
- NBA seeking content assist [3] from China Mobile