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Fresh off a historic 40-point performance in the finals of the Unrivaled season, WNBA player Kelsey Plum is taking a different shot: an AI twin. Fans can now voice call with a digital version of the Los Angeles Sparks star. Plum announced the twin on her personal Instagram account on March 6, asking her AI self for advice on her ponytail and coffee versus energy drink. Plum is the first professional female athlete to launch a verified AI digital twin. It’s a move that’s earning plaudits as a way for women in sports to take control of their image and expand their reach. “The opportunity to have a twin that can connect with fans, with young people, people that love basketball, people that are just interested in sports. The range is endless,” Plum says. “It’s where we are in society, and I think you are either gonna get with it or get lost.”
Because Plum is one of the first to step into this kind of AI digitization, she admits there might be learning curves with some of the twin’s responses. Those potential distortions are where Ashra hesitates. “I think there is a benefit to interactivity. I think the risks are on unexpected behavior,” he says. “All AI models are nondeterministic. You actually don’t know how they’re going to respond until they’re in that context.” He’s not the only skeptic. Since Plum’s Instagram launch, commenters haven’t been shy about voicing their concerns about this use of AI.
NBC will soon debut its Peacock Performance View on the main broadcasts of its NBA coverage. Performance View is a data-driven graphical overlay that Peacock streamers have been able to toggle on and off but will now be used at times on the traditional telecast. Its exact linear launch has not been determined but will be during the regular season.
John Jelley, NBCUniversal’s SVP who oversees product and user experience on Peacock, shared on stage at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference that, on average, a quarter of users had been engaging with the feature with as many 40% for some games. Given its popularity, the idea is to continue educating the audience of what’s available.
Awful Announcing: Adam Silver: "There's no doubt that AI will have the same impact on sports... how we're going to be able to [hyper-personalize] our telecasts... We're about to witness probably the most significant change, certainly in my lifetime, in how sports are presented." 🏀📺🎙️ #NBA
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Sportradar AG announces a multi-year agreement with NBC Sports Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) to enhance the NBA viewing experience through real-time broadcast solutions that enhance live game coverage. NBC Sports Regional Networks will leverage Sportradar’s NBA Advanced Data and GameFrame across live NBA game broadcasts during the 2025-26 and 2026-27 NBA seasons.
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban and several current NBA stars have backed a $4m (£3m) fundraising round for Irish sports tech company Orreco. They join major-winning golfers Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell as investors in Orreco, which uses AI to analyse athletes’ movement for signs of injury susceptibility. “This is the first proactive approach to use AI to help reduce injury risk,” said Cuban, a co-owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team who made his billions as a tech founder and appears on US TV show Shark Tank. “It’s great today and only going to get better.”
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear arguments in a challenge brought by the NBA, seeking the reversal of a Second Circuit decision finding a concrete injury when a consumer’s information is disclosed to another business. The case centers on a lawsuit brought by Michael Salazar, who sued the NBA for tracking his activity on NBA.com and through its free newsletter, data it then shared with Meta to serve him targeted ads.
The Third, 10th and 11th Circuits have each held that a consumer does not have standing, ruling that federal courts cannot recognize “nonpublic, business-to-business disclosures” as harmful. The Sixth and Seventh Circuits have heard arguments in similar cases and are likely to reject the Second Circuit’s decision in looming opinions, the NBA said. The NBA challenged the Second Circuit’s finding that the Video Privacy Protection Act — a 1988 statue prohibiting the disclosure of a customer’s viewing history without their consent — could be extended to apply to individuals who watched videos without renting, buying or subscribing to it.
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The NBA’s hypothesis about Generation App — that cord-cutters and cord-nevers will stream basketball games over linear’s dead body — is now looking more prescient. Data from Playfly Insights shows that roughly 15% of the league’s local broadcast audience last season watched through direct-to-consumer streaming apps, a significant gain that is expected to multiply again this season and is a precursor to the future of NBA consumption.
Sources familiar with league metrics are seeing similar DTC data, while adding that the overall consumption of local NBA broadcasts now is roughly 30% through streaming and will likely rise soon to 50% — meaning half of the audience will be viewing games either on DTC apps, virtual MVPDs or digital-first platforms.
It’s clear, then, that streaming is going mainstream. Never mind the fact that every nationally televised game this season is on a digital platform (Peacock, the ESPN app or Prime Video), local streams are just as critical. The NBA, for instance, has claimed it has the youngest average fan base of any major league (39 years old) and that the 18-to-24 demographic is 33% more likely to access a subscription OTT service than pay TV.
Apple Vision Pro users will be able to experience select NBA games in an immersive way for the 2025-26 season, Apple announced on Friday. Some Los Angeles Lakers matches will be in Apple Immersive video, a format specifically for the headset. The company's release states, "Viewers will feel the intensity of each game as if they were courtside, with perspectives impossible to capture in traditional broadcasts. "
