A return of live NBL to free-to-air television and the ability to on-sell rights of unwanted matches to Foxtel and mobile providers are the key upgrades of the NBL’s new television rights deal with Ten.
“More Australians and more fans of basketball will see games as a result of this new partnership, and at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about: giving our fans the chance to watch games on TV, including one blockbuster match each round played live nationally on Ten every Sunday afternoon,” said Basketball Australia Chairman Kristina Keneally.
The NBL confirmed that the new agreement included:
- One feature game will be broadcast live nationally every Sunday afternoon on Ten. During the months of October to the conclusion of February, the broadcast time will be live at 2:00PM nationally and live at 1:00PM nationally during March and April;
- One game per week will be shown nationally on Friday evenings at the regular timeslot of 9:30PM on Ten’s digital channel One;
- All NBL Finals games will also be broadcast on both Ten and One under the new deal, with Ten maintaining access to rebroadcast coverage of New Zealand Breakers 14 home games into Australia.
NBL Commisioner Justin Milne said that a key component of the new agreement, which will still run the remainder of the original five-year term through until the end of the 2014-15 season, is the NBL reclaiming the rights to non-Ten produced games for subscription television, IPTV, on-line and mobile.
“This revised TEN broadcast platform for the next three seasons will see the league’s audience increase substantially and increase fan accessibility to our games,” said Milne.
“It will have a very positive influence on our brand and further assist our efforts to introduce new fans to the league. Ten’s audience share is significant and we now have the opportunity to capitalise on that and demonstrate to Australians why we believe that we have the best sports entertainment product in this country.
“Just as importantly, we now have this terrific opportunity to talk to a range of potential suitors with an interest in broadcasting all remaining NBL games across multiple platforms. So much is changing in this space and this presents us with a very real opportunity to secure new partnerships that will see all NBL games broadcast on some form of platform, whether it be on TEN, pay television, IPTV, online or mobile.
“Not only will this increase coverage and our ability to introduce new fans, but just as importantly, it will provide increased value for league and club sponsors and should raise the interest of potential new sponsors to the league.”
Image: Getty/Herald Sun
