The National Basketball Association struck a deal with Google's YouTube on Monday, making it the second major sports league to forge an alliance with the popular video-sharing site, according to CNBC's Darren Rovell.
The NBA's partnership with YouTube includes a new website, the "NBA Channel," which contains highlights and behind-the-scenes videos featuring NBA players. The NBA Channel will challenge fans to a contest called "Post Up the NBA," which asks basketball enthusiasts around the world to submit video clips of their best basketball clips and rate the videos posted. Each week, the top user videos will be compiled into a highlight reel voiced by NBA personalities.
Highlights from the All-Star Game will also be immediately available on the website, which can be found at www.youtube.com/nba.
The NBA's deal is part of YouTube's "Claim Your Content Program." It allows rightsholders to remove unauthorized clips or keep the video posted and share in any advertising revenues that the content generates.
The deal is less extensive than the contract Google struck with the National Hockey League in November, sources told CNBC. That deal allowed YouTube users to access video highlights of regular season games, which are available within 24 hours of the original broadcast. Individual game highlights will continue to be a feature on NBA.com.
The NBA has had a partnership with YouTube's parent company Google since January 2006 when it signed a deal with Google Video. Unlike the YouTube deal, that was followed a pay-per-watch model.
English soccer team Chelsea FC recently launched its own channel on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/chelseafc.
Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for CNBC, can be reached at sportsbiz@cnbc.com. His blog can be found at http://sportsbiz.cnbc.com.