NBA League Pass Launches Mobile View

NBA League Pass allows consumers to live stream every NBA game for as long as they pay the $199.99 subscription (for every team; one team costs $119.99). Through NBA League Pass, basketball fans basically get to watch games on most connected devices, such as a smartphone, a tablet device, or a smart TV. But as good as NBA League Pass, it does not really distinguish between those who watch games on TV or those who watch games via mobile. The result is that those who watch via mobile often end up not having a really good viewing experience. 

But here is some good news -- the NBA League Pass is launching NBA Mobile View, a new option for subscribers that optimizes basketball games for smaller screens, like those on smartphone devices. Perhaps the most interesting feature is a zoomed in view, which essentially lets fans zoom in on the play. It is a really handy feature, especially when you are watching on a smartphone -- you no longer have to scratch your head wondering who Kevin Durant posterized with that latest dunk.

Some may be wondering if this is just an ordinary zoom feature. But it is actually a lot more complicated than that. Each of the 29 basketball arenas in the NBA will get a new dedicated camera, cameraman, and producer just for the zoom in shots. And while the main game feed will be from the zoomed in camera, the dedicated team will be capable of incorporating shots and angles from other feeds as well, so that viewers will never miss out on any of that basketball magic.

For now, the regular stream will be displaying the usual score information laid over the game feed, but that could change soon, too. As for the audio, it currently coming from the home broadcast, but in the near future, viewers may be able to listen to an away broadcasting while using Mobile View.

These days, more and more people are devouring media content by way of mobile devices, and a big part of them are sports fans. According to the NBA, three fourths of today’s basketball fans are actually accessing NBA League Pass through smartphones and tablet devices. Last year, the league tried to post two versions of game highlights on their social media accounts -- one the regular version, and the other using Mobile View. The NBA discovered that mobile viewers interacted two and a half times more with the Mobile View version compared to the regular version.