UNC-NC State basketball game will be broadcast on Chinese television

As March Madness lurks around the corner, tonight’s broadcast of the UNC-N.C. State basketball game to Shanghai might help spread the madness worldwide.

And it could help the University’s global publicity, as well.

The 9 p.m. game will be broadcast live at 10 a.m. to the Chinese city of 16 million Thursday morning due to the 13-hour time difference.

Raycom Sports will be broadcasting the game in the United States, and from there, Greatsports Media in Shanghai will broadcast Raycom’s video feed and use local announcers to do the play-by-play in Mandarin.

The broadcast will be the first NCAA regular-season game ever televised in China, according to a press release by the UNC athletic department. Final Four games have been broadcast on television in the past.

“We’re one of the first collegiate basketball teams that has been televised live back to China, and we’re proud to be part of that,” said Larry Gallo, senior associate director of the athletics department.

With budget cuts looming, this broadcast will cost the University nothing but could help it receive international attention that could prove priceless, said Tom Martineau, a research associate for UNC Global.

“I think if there’s more awareness about UNC with basketball, it will affect the rest of the University, as well,” Martineau said.

Three Duke students provided a Mandarin play-by-play audio feed of a Jan. 15 Duke-UVa. game that was made available on the Duke Athletics website.

Greg Jones, vice president and vice provost of global strategy and programs at Duke, said he received e-mails from Chinese residents who listened to the game.

“It was a wonderful experiment,” Jones said.

Duke does not plan on broadcasting any more games for the remainder of the season, Jones said, but administrators hope to continue the broadcast in the future.

Martineau said UNC administrators hope to increase the University’s reputation in China, as well, not through radio, but through broadcast television.

“I admire what Duke is doing, but the real way to reach an audience is through broadcast TV,” he said.

Martineau, who lived in China for several years, said there is a huge fan base for professional basketball, and he hopes by introducing China to college basketball, a similar fan base will develop.

“Hopefully if you get Chinese TV stations, whether it’s regional or national, to start regularly showing UNC basketball or NCAA basketball, it can build a real following,” Martineau said.

“We hope Shanghai, as seen with many other things in China, will be trend setters.”

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.