With one viewer in five coming from China and more than half from beyond US borders, NBA.com set records for video replays in February and was ranked the world's third-most popular website.

The National Basketball Association announced the figures here Thursday, citing 10 language-specific areas including a Hong Kong entry unveiled at the start of the current season.

Nearly 15 million US visits and 30.5 million videos accessed last month set records, the third month in a row for record viewership with video viewing levels 25 percent above last year.

Daily traffic rankings by Alexa Internet, a service owned by Amazon.com comparing global internet sites, show NBA.com trailing only ESPN and Yahoo Sports web sites among viewers of sports-interest web sites.

(Agencies via CRI.cn March 10, 2007)