The Business of YouTube

A weekly strategic lens for senior leaders into how YouTube is reshaping the business of technology, sports, music, entertainment, and culture.

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To your favourite newsletter at the intersection of YouTube, technology, sports, music and entertainment culture. This newsletter is brought to you by Paola Marinone and Bengü Atamer, founders of BuzzMyVideos. We are bringing our exclusive insights from 20 years of experience leading strategy at YouTube and Google.

How the NBA is dominating the YouTube court with their content strategy…

The NBA playoffs are heating up with the Eastern and Western Conference finals determining who will battle for this year's championship ring. While emerging stars like Anthony Edwards and SGA are fighting for the ring and Finals MVP honours, the NBA itself has already secured an impressive title: YouTube MVP of sports leagues.

Let's talk numbers (and it's impressive!)

Before diving into their strategy, here are the headline stats that show how the NBA towers over other major sports leagues.

The NBA dominates both in subscribers and monthly views, establishing themselves as the undisputed MVPs of sports content on YouTube. But what exactly makes their YouTube strategy so effective?

The NBA's Triple-Double Strategy for YouTube Success

After analysing their content (yes, we spent way too much time watching basketball highlights), we've identified three game-changing approaches that set the NBA apart.

1. Quality AND Quantity

This is the strategy we're most impressed by. The NBA has gone all-in on high-volume content creation, treating YouTube as their testing laboratory for audience engagement.

The numbers are staggering:

• 708 videos uploaded in the last 30 days alone

• For context, La Liga (their nearest subscriber rival still in-season) uploaded 430 videos in the same period

• This 65% higher upload rate allows rapid testing and refinement

The NBA understands that while quality matters, the sheer volume of uploads allows them to test and refine content at a rate much faster than competitors. This supercharges their channel growth by quickly identifying what resonates with audiences and doubling down on winning formats.

2. They Own the Highlights Ecosystem

Most leagues post game recaps. The NBA builds storytelling ecosystems around their highlights.

The NBA has perfected the art of immediate post-game content packaging, recognising that fans in this era have instant access to highlights on social media and want to relive experiences directly after games and experience new stories.

Their highlights ecosystem includes:

• "Top plays" compilations from each game

• Individual player highlight reels

• On-court player partnerships content and memorable moments

• Themed highlights storylines like "100+ 4th QTR Points"

Their balance of short-form and long-form allows them to own the narrative across formats. Most impressive is their speed - highlights are packaged and published almost immediately after games end, capturing fans while emotions and excitement are at their peak.

3. The Art of New-Stalgia

The NBA has mastered what we call "new-stalgia" - leveraging current headlines and storylines to tap into their mega archive of footage, reinventing old content to create new storylines that resonate with today's league.

Here's how it works: When Oklahoma City Thunder (OKC) had an epic ending to Game 5 against the Nuggets, the NBA immediately created content revisiting all the best endings from OKC playoff games over the years. Using past OKC star Kevin Durant in the thumbnail to maximise engagement.

This strategy allows them to:

• Capitalise on current moments while providing historical context

• Creates binge-able archive content that drives long-tail engagement

• Create connection points between past and present stars

• Generate content efficiently using existing footage

The NBA don’t just post history, they reinvent it to stay relevant.

…The Secret Weapon - Star Power

The secret weapon that underpins the YouTube success is the NBA’s star power. The NBA's cultural resonance has allowed it to build superstar names both on and off-court. Each team is renowned for its 'franchise player' and the league leverages these superstar names to attract even casual NBA fans to the channel.

The league has achieved this by providing players a platform to express their personalities through off-court interests like fashion, music and business. Names past, present and future like Kevin Durant, Anthony Edwards and SGA are then leveraged within titles and thumbnails, driving engagement across all content types.

Final Thoughts

What we find most impressive about the NBA's approach is how they've transformed their YouTube presence into a content machine that operates 24/7, serving fans' insatiable appetite for basketball content while building massive reach that rivals traditional media outlets.

They clearly understand that basketball fans want immediate access to highlights, historical context for current storylines, and cultural storytelling through their favourite stars. By serving all these needs through relentless content creation and smart archive utilisation, they've created the most dominant sports league presence on YouTube.

The YouTube court is becoming as important as the physical one, and the NBA are MVPs on both.

What other sports leagues do you think could learn from the NBA's YouTube playbook? We'd love to hear your thoughts!

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