AutoTrader.com Extends Partnership With NBA And Turner Sports

- Trio Celebrates 10 Years of Collaboration through New Digital Series -

NEW YORK and ATLANTA, Oct. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- AutoTrader.com today announced a multiyear renewal of its partnership with Turner Sports and the National Basketball Association (NBA).  As part of the extended agreement, AutoTrader.com will continue its role as the presenting sponsor of "NBA on TNT Premiere Week presented by AutoTrader.com," "TNT NBA Tip-Off presented by AutoTrader.com," and all NBA TV pregame shows.

AutoTrader.com will continue its partnership when it returns as the presenting partner of "NBA on TNT Premiere Week presented by AutoTrader.com," featuring four regular-season games. Overall, AutoTrader.com will partner with TNT and NBA TV to provide sponsorship elements to more than 200 combined NBA games during the 2014-15 season, including programming during the preseason, regular season, NBA All-Star 2015, and NBA Playoffs.

"Our longstanding relationship with the NBA is an integral part of our media strategy, allowing us to engage with millions of NBA fans and educate them on all of the tools AutoTrader offers to make car shopping easier," said Jessica Stafford, vice president of Consumer Marketing for Cox Automotive. "This partnership has proven to be extremely valuable for our business through deep brand integration and direct site traffic records hit every year of the sponsorship during NBA All-Star."

In celebration of the automotive marketplace's 10^th consecutive year as presenting partner of "TNT NBA Tip-Off presented by AutoTrader.com," AutoTrader.com and Turner Sports are also teaming up to produce a new linear and digital franchise titled, "Celebrating 10 Years."  Beginning this season, the series will provide basketball fans with a nostalgic look back at some of the best moments from the past 10 seasons of "TNT NBA Tip-Off presented by AutoTrader.com."  These moments will live on a new dedicated section of NBA.com, alongside other offerings presented by AutoTrader.com, such as the "All-Star Drive presented by AutoTrader.com" and the "Drive to the Finals Fantasy Game."  Social promotion and customized promotional spots airing within the tip-off shows will drive viewers to the NBA.com destination.

In addition to pregame and digital enhancements, AutoTrader.com will return as an advertising partner during NBA game broadcasts on both TNT and NBA TV.

"TNT NBA Tip-Off presented by AutoTrader.com" welcomes back a roster of veteran talent this season, including an Emmy®-Award winning studio team featuring host Ernie Johnson and analysts Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, two-time NBA champion Kenny Smith, and four-time NBA champion Shaquille O'Neal.  The show airs throughout the regular season on Thursday evenings regularly at 8 p.m. ET.  NBA TV pregame shows air to a national audience multiple nights a week, ahead of some of the season's most exciting matchups.  

AutoTrader.com will give the "TNT NBA Tip-Off presented by AutoTrader.com" studio talent a chance to give back with a new charitable program, while showcasing their basketball knowledge this season.  During the weekly "All-Star Drive presented by AutoTrader.com" contest, Johnson, Barkley, O'Neal, and Smith will each select one player they believe will have an all-star performance.  The analyst with the highest score – based on a cumulative total of points, assists, and rebounds by the player – will choose a charity and AutoTrader.com will donate a car to that charity.

"Drive to the Finals presented by AutoTrader.com" is also back again this season, providing fans a chance to showcase their basketball expertise.  During the playoffs, participating fans will select one NBA player they think will put together the best individual performance each night.  Similar to "All-Star Drive," the fan who accumulates the most points throughout the playoffs will receive $25,000 towards the purchase of a car listed on AutoTrader.com.

About AutoTrader.com
Created in 1997, Atlanta-based AutoTrader.com is the Internet's ultimate automotive marketplace. As a leading resource for car shoppers and sellers, AutoTrader.com aggregates millions of new, used and certified pre-owned cars from thousands of dealers and private sellers and provides expert articles and reviews. AutoTrader.com, which also operates the AutoTraderClassics.com auto marketing brand, is wholly owned by Cox Automotive. Additionally, Cox Automotive owns Kelley Blue Book (KBB.com®), Manheim Auctions as well as companies that provide a full suite of software tools that help dealers and manufacturers manage their inventory and advertising online: vAuto®, HomeNet Automotive®, VinSolutions®, AIS Rebates™, Genius Labs® and Haystak™. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises. For more information, please visit http://press.autotrader.com.

About the NBA
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 700 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 $242 million to charity, completed more than 3 million hours of hands-on community service, and created more than 915 places where kids and families can live, learn, or play.

About Turner Sports
Turner Sports, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., is an industry leader in the delivery of premium sports content across all multimedia screens. Turner Sports' television coverage includes the NBA, Major League Baseball, NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship and professional golf.  The company also manages some of the most popular sports destinations across broadband and mobile platforms including Bleacher Report and its top-rated Team Stream app, NCAA.com and the critically-acclaimed NCAA March Madness Live suite of products, PGA.com and the Sports Emmy Award-winning PGA Championship LIVE, as well as an accompanying collection of mobile sites and connected device apps.  Turner Sports and the NBA also jointly manage NBA Digital, a robust collection of offerings including NBA TV, NBA.com, NBA LEAGUE PASS, NBA Mobile, the NBA Game Time App, NBADLEAGUE.com and WNBA.com.

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SOURCE AutoTrader.com

For further information: Nicole Twork, AutoTrader.com, 770.547.7950 or Nicole.Twork@autotrader.com; Kim Mandara, NBA, 212.407.8158 or kmandara@nba.com; Lauren McCabe, Turner Sports, 212.275.6882 or lauren.mccabe@turner.com