"We're at a point now where forty percent of our audience is coming from outside the United States. And with the inclusion of Yao Ming in this year's draft we're actually seeing our Asian numbers just go through the roof. And we're coming back this year with a full fledged NBA.com China site with a partner in China."
The NBA sites already draw about one and a half million visitors a day during the season. Spoonmore says the sites have been making money for the last year... .with more and more fans signing up for subscription content...
"We've been running audio league pass which is audio of every game, home and away. This year we're actually coming out with a larger package, same price point, 9.95 per month. And for that you get... it's audio league pass, every game home and away, it's video, it's stats emailed to you directly every night from the box scores of previous night's games. It's special offers and that package we see is going to be incredibly successful for us. And people out on the net are understanding that they need to pay for a certain kind of premium content now."
The NBA does offer limited content for free... .but like the rest of the Web these days... you have to pay for the good stuff. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.