CCTV suspended all broadcasts of NBA matches in October after a Houston Rockets executive tweeted in support of Hong Kong pro-democracy protests.
China’s state broadcaster CCTV maintained its blackout of NBA games as the American basketball league resumed on Friday, extending a freedom-of-speech stand-off that stretches back more than nine months.
Although Chinese internet giant Tencent streamed the NBA’s return from a four-month coronavirus shutdown, the world’s most popular basketball competition remained inaccessible to China’s TV audiences.
CCTV suspended all broadcasts of NBA matches in October after a Houston Rockets executive tweeted in support of Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, unleashing a firestorm of criticism in China.
The NBA commands a huge following in China – its biggest and most lucrative market outside of the US – and the subsequent fall-out has cost the league more than $300 million in revenue.
