Turner Sports, NBA Digital Showcase NBA All-Star with Record-Breaking Multi-Platform Coverage

Turner Sports and
NBA Digital announced record-setting numbers for their NBA All-Star 2009 multi-platform
coverage, which included exclusive programming across the TNT and NBA TV networks, and NBA.com.
In total, more than 44.1 million people
watched NBA All-Star coverage on TNT (+15-percent,
38.3 million in 2008), while an additional seven million viewed it online and via mobile devices from Fri,
Feb. 13 through Mon., Feb. 16.

TNT hit a
ratings milestone with its coverage of NBA All-Star Saturday Night on Sat.,
Feb. 14 which garnered double-digit
growth in total viewers (+26%,
6,554,000) over the year prior
and ranks as the most-watched telecast
of the event in its 24-year history.Additionally, the network’s
coverage of the 2009 NBA All-Star Game on Sun., Feb. 15 had 7,621,000 million total viewers, a 20 percent increase over 2008.
TNT’s NBA All-Star programming secured the network the #1 ranking in primetime for both Saturday and
Sunday among ad-supported cable television. The NBA All-Star Game and NBA All-Star Saturday
Night also became the #1 and #2
telecasts, respectively, on
ad-supported cable year-to-date for A18-34, A18-49, M18-34, M18-49 and M25-54.

“The
success of NBA All-Star 2009 speaks to the strength of the NBA brand and
Turner’s ability as a company to engage consumerswith unique content
ona multitude of distribution platforms,” says David Levy, president of Turner Broadcasting Sales and Turner Sports.“By
servingNBA branded content across multiple platforms, we are growing
consumers’ interaction between events on our air and unique features offered on
our sites, strengthening the NBA on TNT brand and creating a fully integrated
experience for our advertisers.”

NBA.com
experienced record traffic during the weekend bolstered by the new NBA All-Star Scene feature on the
site.The section received 1.4
million video streams and included more than 400 videos featuring and/or uploaded by NBA players, celebrities
and fans.Additional NBA Digital coverage highlights included: TNT OverTime Access, a mosaic
featuring live streaming angles of the Saturday and Sunday All-Star events,
with video streams up 60 percent; NBA
Digital establishing the new record for
video streams during All-Star, with more than 14 million, an increase of more than 35 percent from
last year’s record; and more than one
million fans utilizing mobile devices to access All-Star content.

“The
unprecedented success of NBA All-Star Scene shows how TV, the Internet and
Wireless can be coordinated into a highly-engaging, multi-platform experience
for fans and demonstrates the strength of the NBA Digital assets,” says Bryan Perez, SVP/GM of NBA Digital.
“By taking fans where they’ve never been able to go before, in almost real-time
and then allowing them to share that experience, not only with other fans on
NBA.com, but on mobile devices, social networks and blogs, we’ve been able to
raise the bar for interactivity in sports digital media.”