NEW YORK – HARMAN International and the National Basketball Association (NBA) today announced a comprehensive multiyear marketing and merchandising partnership that will make the company the official headphone, speaker, and audio partner of the NBA, Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), NBA Development League (NBA D-League), and USA Basketball.  This unprecedented partnership is the NBA’s first-ever marketing partner in these categories and HARMAN’s first partnership with a professional sports league.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and HARMAN Chairman, President and CEO Dinesh Paliwal made the announcement this afternoon at the HARMAN Flagship Store on Madison Avenue in New York City.

The new marketing and consumer products partnership will focus on HARMAN’s JBL brand and will provide fans with enhanced audio experiences both in the arena and at home.  HARMAN’s products will also be featured at NBA events worldwide and integrated into league operations.  HARMAN will provide JBL and other HARMAN products to players and coaches.

Additionally, as early as this holiday season, HARMAN will produce NBA-branded audio products for fans around the world.  The products will include team- and player-branded headphones and portable speakers.

“As a global leader known for creating and developing the best audio products on the market, we are honored to welcome HARMAN to the NBA family,” said Silver. “This groundbreaking partnership showcases the intersection of technology and entertainment, and provides our tech-savvy fans with another way to further connect with their favorite team and players.”

“HARMAN is extremely proud to become the first official audio partner of the NBA and excited to elevate the NBA basketball experience for fans around the world wherever they enjoy the sounds of the game – at the arena, in their homes, in their cars, or on the go,” said Paliwal.  “Recognizing the convergence of music, sports, technology and entertainment, the NBA and HARMAN are ideal partners to develop powerful marketing programs and exciting co-branded audio products that will engage and inspire a new generation of fans.”

Building upon its expertise in music and entertainment, HARMAN will present the NBA All-Star Entertainment Series, bringing the excitement of the musical performances at State Farm All-Star Saturday Night and during pregame introductions and the halftime show at the NBA All-Star Game to fans in the arena and watching at home.

HARMAN will have a large presence at NBA events throughout the year, beginning next month at NBA Global Games Rio 2014.  As a partner in Rio, HARMAN will host several activities at the Fan Zone, including musical performances and the NBA Global Games viewing party.

HARMAN also will conduct significant activities at many other marquee events across the NBA, WNBA, NBA D-League, and USA Basketball, including: NBA All-Star Jam Session, Boost Mobile WNBA All-Star, NBA D-League All-Star, and the USA Basketball Global Exhibition Tour.  Later this season, HARMAN will debut new NBA-themed advertising, promotions, and sweepstakes.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets premier audio, visual, infotainment and integrated control solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets. With leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson ®, the Company is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems.  HARMAN has a workforce of approximately 16,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $5.3 billion for the twelve months ended June 30, 2014.

The NBA is a global sports and media business built around three professional sports leagues: the National Basketball Association, the Women’s National Basketball Association, and the NBA Development League.  The league has established a major international presence with offices in 13 markets worldwide, games and programming in 215 countries and territories in 47 languages, and NBA merchandise for sale in more than 125,000 stores in 100 countries on 6 continents.  NBA rosters at the start of the 2013-14 season featured a record 92 international players from 39 countries and territories.  NBA Digital’s assets include NBA TV, which is available in 60 million U.S. homes, and NBA.com, which recorded 26.9 billion page views during the 2013-14 season, with more than half of all visitors originating from outside of North America.  The NBA is the No. 1 professional sports league on social media, with more than 675 million likes and followers globally across all league, team, and player platforms.  Through NBA Cares, the league and its teams and players have donated more than $237 million to charity, completed more than 3 million hours of hands-on community service, and created more than 895 places where kids and families can live, learn, or play.