The Commodification And Spatialization Of NBA’s Expansion In China

National Basketball Association(NBA) has entered the China market for more than 30 years. From providing free program resources for CCTV broadcasting at the very beginning to overspreading by means of TV and new media nowadays, NBA has gone through a big reversal process from paying for programming of an unprofitable business to making huge profits. Coupled with the constant event marketing in China, NBA has establised a positive, active and fashionable image. Thus, China market has become the second biggest market in the NBA global market.Investigating into its spread in TV, new media and event marketing which are three major areas of NBA’s expansion, the thesis aims at exploring the ways NBA constructs expansion channels in China to develop its business, and finally succeeds in creating a huge and profitable market space in China. This thesis adopts commodification and spatialization, two key concepts of Political Economy of Communication as its anylytic tool, and analyzes NBA’s expansion in the three above-mentioned sectors. The thesis also compares Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) with NBA to draw some reference points.This article is divided into five chapters:In the introduction, the rationale of the research is brought out, while commodification and spatialization, the two key concepts of Political Economy of Communication, is led in to make initial analysis in the field of TV, new media and event marketing. The main body of the thesis is Chapter 2 to Chapter 4, in which the writer carries out further and detailed discussion, along with the three major parts mentioned above. In Chapter 5, conclusion and discussion, it make a conclusion of NBA’s expansion process in three major fields and compares it with CBA to get some referential perspective for the development of CBA.There are some good existing research in NBA’s expansion in China and comparative studies of NBA and CBA, but very few is based on the perspective of Political Economy of Communication. The thesis hopes to enrich and contribute to the research in this sector.