SINGAPORE, Nov. 4 -- Xinhua/ PRNewswire/ AsiaNet Network Will Broadcast and Market Second Season Of Super Basketball League Basketball fans in Taiwan can look forward to more of the best hoop action, after ESPN STAR Sports netted an agreement with the nation's Super Basketball League committee to broadcast and market the League's second season which begins in December. The committee includes the Taiwan Sports Council, the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA) and the seven teams that form the Super Basketball League (SBL). Under the agreement, ESPN STAR Sports will provide coverage and marketing of SBL matches, including related programming for the Taiwan audience that incorporate innovative graphics and interactive elements. Kathy Sun, Managing Director, ESPN STAR Sports, Greater China said, "We are pleased to work with the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association and the seven basketball teams to market and broadcast the League again, after the success of the first season. Through our partnership with them, we hope to help promote tremendous growth in this sport in Taiwan and lift its development to a higher level." The popularity of basketball in Asia has been boosted by the success of Chinese players overseas like Yao Ming and Wang Zhi Zhi. ESPN STAR Sports' coverage of Super Basketball League matches in Taiwan adds to its already popular broadcast of America's National Basketball League (NBA) tournament. In Taiwan, an estimated 8.6 million cable viewers there tuned in to ESPN and STAR Sports to catch the excitement and drama of the NBA last year. ESPN STAR Sports' basketball programming reaches over 73.3 million cable viewers in Asia, consistently attracting youths and a well-educated upscale male audience. Peoplemeter research in Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and India show that more than 50% of young upscale male viewers aged between 10 and 20 watch basketball action on ESPN STAR Sports.(Source : Nielsen Taiwan Telescope, TN Sofres Infosys Singapore, Nielsen Hong Kong Telescope, SM Infosys China). ESPN STAR Sports is a 50:50 joint venture between two of the world's leading cable and satellite broadcasters, ESPN Inc. and STAR. We are Asia's complete sports provider reaching over 128 million households for ESPN and over 54 million households for STAR Sports (as of June 2004). We have 13 networks -- ESPN Asia, ESPN India, ESPN Taiwan, ESPN Philippines, MBC-ESPN (Korea), ESPN Singapore, ESPN Hong Kong, STAR Sports Asia, STAR Sports India, STAR Sports Taiwan, STAR Sports Singapore, STAR Sports S.E.A and STAR Sports Hong Kong. We bring the world's premier live sports and leading regional events to viewers 24 hours a day. On the ground, the ESPN STAR Sports Event Management Group manages and promotes premier sporting events around Asia, including the Asian X Games, Futsal World 5's and the San Miguel Asian 9Ball Tour. On-line, espnstar.com, espnstar.com.cn and espnstar.com.tw interact with millions of users providing them with in-depth sports news, results and competitions. This multilingual, online platform which is closely integrated with ESPN and STAR Sports on air networks, has established the sites as the number one on-line sports destination in their respective markets. For further information, please contact: Stephenie Vasko, ESPN STAR Sports, Tel: (65) 6488-6126 or email: [email protected] Cheryl Sim, ESPN STAR Sports, Tel: (65) 6488-6134 or email: [email protected] SOURCE: ESPN STAR Sports --Distributed by AsiaNet (www.asianetnews.net)--