Late Monday night, reports broke that the NBA had struck a lucrative multiyear, online-marketing deal with Japan’s Rakuten Inc.
According to a report from USA Today‘s Sam Amick, Rakuten, one of Japan’s biggest television and online companies, will be offering the NBA’s premium live-game subscription to all of its own subscribers through the NBA’s official app or via their video-on-demand service.
Rakuten will pay the NBA a reported $225 million over the life of the deal. As a result, Japan is poised to potentially become the NBA’s biggest international audience. This isn’t the first time that Rakuten has gotten involved with the NBA, however.