Basketball fans will score big with the launch of FIBA AMERICAS TV, bringing some of best international hoop action to the United States and Latin America for the first time on its own dedicated TV network.
THEMA-Alterna’TV, a Canal+ Company and world supplier of quality content for today’s evolving TV distribution business, is unveiling FIBA AMERICAS TV, the first branded network offering top international basketball games from the U.S., Canada and Latin America, to cable operators in the U.S. and Latin America. The announcement was made today at the Expo Convergencias.mx 2016 event in Mexico City.
Today’s news marks the first time the officially sanctioned games of the Federación Internacional de Basketball (FIBA) leagues from the Americas league will be presented in one viewing destination. The exciting action will see top teams from the U.S., Argentina, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela, Canada, Uruguay and Panama as they square off throughout the season.
Basketball is a magnet for attracting millennial viewers in the U.S., with the average age for pro basketball viewers steady at 37 for the last 15 years.
In comparison, the average age of football viewers has climbed to 47 and even older for baseball (age 53), according to a study conducted by ESPN and The Washington Post. In the U.S., the NBA attracts 14.5% of Hispanic sports fans.
From Belize to Colombia and Uruguay to the well-established countries of Argentina and Brazil, the sport of basketball has soared in popularity throughout Latin America. Quickly rivaling soccer, FIBA Americas has evolved the game into an ultra competitive league and breeding ground for future NBA stars including Carmelo Anthony (New York Knicks), Chris Bosh (Miami Heat) and Andre Iguodala (Golden State Warriors).
This is the latest move to expand FIBA’s global reach. Earlier in the year, FIBA announced the inaugural Latin America Select Team game, which was played during the 2016 NCAA Men’s Final Four weekend. The event highlighted “the basketball, the music, the spectacle, the charisma and the emotion that is Latin America,” according to organizers.
“Basketball is one of the world’s most popular sports, appealing to millennials and mature viewers alike, and transcending language and geography,” said Patrick Rivet, Senior Vice President Distribution at THEMA. “Our content strategy for acquiring Alterna’TV was to capitalize on its relationships and knowledge of the U.S. and Latin America market in an effort to create complementary programming offerings and greater efficiencies with our sister companies. “FIBA Americas TV is the ideal channel to kick off the new THEMA-Alterna’TV partnership and also give cable operators a unique offering for sport fans.”
Added Roberto Perez, the Acting General Manager at Alterna’TV: Our goal is to offer more and new channels with Latin content into the U.S. marketplace, paving the way for European content and channels down the road. We believe FIBA Americas TV will be extremely popular with carriers across the U.S. and Latin America, as it appeals to an audience encompassing viewers of all socio-economic, ethnic and lifestyle sectors. Basketball is a truly global sport and will serve as a wonderful platform from which to introduce carriers and audiences to other channels offered by Alterna’TV and THEMA.”
Offering some 1,852 games per season, FIBA AMERICAS TV covers teams from the three zones representing 43 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico, as well as The Caribbean Islands, Canada and the United States. In addition to league play, FIBA Americas TV delivers FIBA Championship games, including FIBA Americas, Centrobasket, the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, the COCABA and South American Championships and Youth Olympics, as well as monthly clinics for coaches and referees.
About FIBA Americas TV
FIBA Americas TV brings the officially sanctioned Federación Internacional de Basketball (FIBA) league games of North American, South American and Central American and the Caribbean teams to television viewers throughout the United States. Offering some 1,852 games per season, FIBA Americas TV covers teams from three zones representing 44 countries: Canada and the United States, South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela) and the Central and Caribbean zone (Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Granada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Caiman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, San Vicente and Grenadines Islands, San Cristobal and Nieves, Santa Lucia, Surinam and Trinidad and Tobago). In addition to league play, FIBA Americas TV also delivers FIBA Championship games including FIBA Americas, Centrobasket, FIBA Women Worldcup, the Cocaba and Southamerican Championships and Youth Olympics as well as monthly clinics for coaches and referees.
About THEMA-Alterna'TV
Alterna'TV, recently acquired by Canal+ Group subsidiary THEMA, delivers programming that is both timely and culturally distinct with a roster of channels including the new, extreme sports PXTV, MotorsTV, and Trace Sport Stars in addition to Latin American Sports and AYM Sports; children’s entertainment channel Fix & Foxi; and general entertainment channels Canal 22 Internacional, Canal ONCE, CB Tu Television Michoacan, and Telemicro Internacional. These channels are distributed to the leading Pay TV platforms such as DISH, DirecTV, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, Verizon Fios, AT&T U-Verse, Charter and RCN as well as MegaCable, and UNE.
Establishing a U.S. presence in 2013, THEMA’s acquisition of Alterna’TV in 2016 leverages its strong international expertise in content distribution and marketing to create a new integrated business unit to promote its commercial development across the Americas, exploiting the synergies between its existing distribution activities and those acquired through Alterna’TV.
Active in five continents, THEMA distributes a portfolio of over 100 channels through leading international pay-tv platforms, is a publisher of numerous TV channels, including Nollywood TV, Novelas TV and Gospel Music TV and packages more than 10 ethnic TV channels offers.
Earlier in 2016, THEMA acquired Terra Terra, a Canadian company specializing in TV channels distribution to operators in North America. For more information on THEMA and its channels portfolio, visit:
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Media Contact:
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