10,000 Brazilian fans watched the Lakers play the Mavericks on the Net.
National Basketball Assn. fans in Brazil have become the first in the world to have access to live games via broadband Internet.
About 10,000 fans saw the Dallas Mavericks beat the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday on web portal
Globo.com, which charges an extra monthly fee of 4.90 reals ($2.20) to watch two games per week on
Globoesporte.com.
The matches, broadcast in Portuguese, are not the same as ones aired live in Brazil by ESPN Intl. and ESPN Brasil.
Vincent Burniske, senior director of international television and marketing partnerships for NBA Entertainment, said that NBA chose Globo.com for the first deal because a test last year showed a high demand in Brazil.
Additionally, the portal has the technology to properly stream the games.
Globo.com prevents users from outside Brazil seeing the games and offers "near-DVD quality" images said Burniske, who added that the NBA had inked a similar deal with Chinese portal NuSports.
NBA has no plans to offer live streaming in the U.S.
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