PRESS RELEASE - Issued March 13th 2008

Basketball 24/7 to launch new UK basketball website

Basketball 24/7, the UK’s newest basketball website, will be launching on Monday 31 March 2008.

The website will mix traditional basketball news and features and regular video content from the world of basketball. The site will feature blogs, podcasts and user generated content delivering the diverse world of UK, European and world basketball to an online audience in the UK and beyond. All content will be free for users in the UK and overseas.

Basketball 24/7 is the brainchild of James Harris-Hogarth, former editor of UKTVSlam and a new media consultant for Channel 4, and Greg Tanner, founder of streetball.co.uk and a producer for Sky News and ITN.

The site has already attracted a number of high profile contributors with Ian Whittel (The Times, The Sun, ESPN) and Simon Rushworth (The Express, The Star) providing weekly features and interviews form the world of international and domestic basketball.

Mark Woods (The Guardian, talkSPORT, Chicago Tribune) will host a regular podcast for the website that will be available online and through iTunes.

Their mission will be to connect with the established basketball audience, serving up NBA, Euroleague, NCAA, FIBA & BBL content whilst also introducing a younger audience to the game with features on schools, clubs and outdoor basketball.

The new site looks to capitalize on the popularity of basketball in UK schools and help promote the game as an energetic and rewarding team sport.

James said about new site: “It’s exciting that we now have the opportunity to deliver this great sport to a younger audience in the UK, via a medium they are comfortable with. The advances in technology mean that we can cover events in the UK or globally, and keep the site updated from anywhere in the world.”

Basketball 24/7 has already attracted some key partners. Molten Sports, the world’s premier basketball manufacturer and Cheerleader Productions, a hugely successful independent production company based at MTV in London, have both signed up to the project before the website has gone live.

Bob Hope, chairman of Molten Sports UK said: “It’s great that James & Greg will be covering basketball in the UK and beyond. Molten is happy to back this exciting project.”

Derek Brandon, Executive Producer of Cheerleader Productions added: “This is a dynamic project for Cheerleader to get involved in and we’ll be doing everything we can to help the guys get the website off the ground.”

Notes for editors –

Basketball is the world’s fastest growing and largest participation sport.

Basketball is one of the world’s largest spectator sports – it is a major sport in every continent.

The International Governing Body for basketball (FIBA) has 213 countries in membership. This total makes them one of the three biggest international governing bodies of sport.

It is common to now find basketball as a part of primary and secondary schools curriculum.

66% of basketball players in the UK are aged between 15 and 24. 

It is estimated that there are more than half a million people in England who regularly participate in basketball.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics basketball will be the most watched televised sport, with an anticipated global audience of approximately 1 billion. It is also anticipated that tickets for the basketball will be the most sort after during the Beijing Olympics.

The Great Britain basketball team recently qualified for the A Division of European basketball and will be playing a series of qualifying matches for the 2009 European Championships in August and September 2008.

The Great Britain basketball team will compete at the 2012 London Olympics, with the basketball final being held at the O2 in Greenwich.

The NBA (National Basketball Association) have moved their European Headquarters to London and they staged their first pre-season game in ten years at the O2 in October 2007. The 16,800 tickets for NBA Europe Live sold out within three weeks.

The British domestic league (The BBL) recently signed a deal with Setanta Sports to show live basketball every Wednesday evening. The deal was brokered by PA-Sport Multimedia, the BBL’s multimedia and broadcast rights partner.