In 2019, the NBA announced its exclusive partnership with Twitch to stream all USA basketball games to international audiences. If you are familiar with the gaming world, you’ll be familiar with Twitch. It is an online video platform used for streaming games and player competitions.
In addition to NBA games, Twitch will also start streaming Junior NBA Global Championship games.
Twitch already has several interesting sporting content including select NFL games. This partnership will only boost their catalog of games. With more and more consumers ditching cable subscriptions for online streaming, this is certainly a good move from the NBA to keep up with their audience.
Online media streaming sites have been thriving in recent years. Some examples include Amazon Prime and DAZN while traditional sources like EPN have also moved from cable to an online direct-to-consumer strategy. Some basketball leagues have even begun to stream their games on the official NBA website, allowing fans without cable to tune in.
Although fans are slowly but steadily moving away from cable, leagues still see TV networks as essential. This is primarily because the TV production quality is still second to none. Secondly, the NBA is still partnered with ESPN, TNT, and ABC which makes it more difficult for them to move away from cable. However, it looks like the NBA is determined to move with the modern ages so they are sure to find new ways to circumvent these issues.
The new partnership with twitch involves streaming a variety of events such as 3x3 events, all Women’s and Men’s National Team games as well the Nike Hoop Summit. For viewers and cable cutters, it is definitely going to be an interesting time ahead.
We’ve all seen Jaws. We’ve seen how a day at the beach or a boat trip can turn from sunshine and laughter to horror in the blink of an eye. All it takes is to hear that haunting music and see the fin zig-zagging towards us. We know what lurks under the surface and what’s going to happen any… second… now. This father and son had presumably seen the same movie but decided to go out in their boat regardless. The water was a beautiful deep blue and was calm on the surface, but then they spotted something underwater - the thing that day trippers in boats and divers fear the most.
The adult films the great white shark on his cell phone as it circles their small vessel several times, all while his son sounds audibly nervous at the beast that is just feet away from him.
“This guy is not leaving us!” says dad with a note of disbelief in his voice, as the animal won’t swim away and leave them alone, as it keeps patrolling around their boat. Close-up shots of the shark highlight just how big it is. Although there is no way of knowing for sure, a conservative estimate is that it must be at least eight feet long.
The viewer never sees into the shark’s mouth, but we know from the special effects from the Jaws franchise that what’s in there won’t be a pretty sight. It will contain teeth as jagged as broken glass and which could cut through flesh and bone with the greatest of ease.
Thankfully, the shark decided not to attack the duo and neither was hurt. But this amazing film must rank as one of the closest encounters ever captured on film by two amateurs on a day trip.