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I can’t believe SBS is mentioned in that tweet. Whatever happened to Channel 9.
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Fox Sports and Nine were both getting the NBL free, iirc, so if this tweet is correct will SBS be paying I wonder?
I think that tweet is wrong about SBS showing games but who knows by the time tomorrow comes. Maybe FOX is still in the picture.
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Presumably Larry Kestelman will talk about it tomorrow morning on SEN. ↓
The Australian has the story. ESPN will show 59 games live. There will be 67 games live free-to-air on SBS Viceland, with all 126 games throughout the season streamed live on SBS On-demand. ESPN and SBS have the broadcast rights for free, with the NBL taking a cut of television advertising revenue and covering all production costs.
The television deal also includes the rights to Boomers and Opals matches including the forthcoming USA team games. There is no indication who will broadcast those games.
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Looks like NBL given for free so they can expose the game as widely as possible in a possible hope that one day they can charge for the rights. The revenues for SBS won’t be too much but they’re giving away spectrum for free so that’s good content for them. Perfect scenario for a public broadcaster.
Good to see the coverage is tipped in favor of free to air.
In saying that this is a very niche sport that about 4 people actually care about.
The crowds they get in the stadium doesn’t replicate on tv. No one gives a fuck about it after a night out at the game.
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The fewer Vice imports the better, frankly.
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I’d be ecstatic with this scenario. SBS, once again, punching well above its’ weight. ESPN taking the prime time stuff but still available On Demand if you’d like. So I guess I’m one of the 4 then.
The NBL website has the report on the new rights first thing this morning. ESPN definitely jumped the gun last night.
http://www.nbl.com.au/news/article/nbl20-broadcast-live-on-sbs-viceland-and-espn
Expect the NBL to have longer time-outs (from 2 minutes to 3 minutes) so that ESPN can carry more commercials a la NBA.
Vice content are being phased out on SBS as their output deal is almost coming to an end.
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ESPN showing primetime but SBS showing the afternoon games. Win-win sitatuion for basketball fans around Australia.
no = when it first started, ESPN used to show AFL (in the USA).
here in australia they showed the 2014 Australian Baseball league championship games as well
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Not overly surprising but their was no mention of the deal on Sportscenter Australia this morning but thinking of this I wonder what plans ESPN has maybe move SC back into primetime airing before NBL games.
NBL continues on Foxtel via new broadcast agreement with ESPN and SBS
Australia’s best live sport all in one place includes full NBL coverage
Foxtel today welcomed the announcement that the National Basketball League (NBL) had reached a new broadcast agreement with SBS and ESPN to air the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 NBL seasons.
The agreement means Foxtel subscribers will continue to enjoy extensive coverage of the NBL live and in HD, via ESPN and on SBS VICELAND. Foxtel sports subscribers will also be able to watch every NBL match On Demand.
- As the home of Australian sport this latest deal makes Foxtel’s unbeatable sports line up even better.
- The move is a win for Aussie basketball fans with coverage of the NBL being made available to Foxtel subscribers via our partners at ESPN and SBS.
- Foxtel’s recent announcement that SBS On Demand is arriving on Foxtel later this year, means every game will also be available to stream, seamlessly, through ESPN or SBS On Demand on Foxtel iQ3s and iQ4s.
The 2019/20 season begins Oct 3, 2019, and will see ESPN air 59 prime time games live on TV at 7:30pm, 8pm and 9:30pm AEST across their ESPN, ESPN2 and WatchESPN service with SBS VICELAND broadcasting 67 games, as well as all 126 games available to be streamed on SBS On Demand.
Last week, Foxtel unveiled The New Foxtel Experience, which is being progressively rolled out to iQ4 customers and is expected to be complete in August. The iQ3 roll out will begin in September with all iQ3 customers expected to have The New Foxtel Experience during November.
ESPN and ESPN2 are available to Foxtel Sport subscribers. SBS Viceland is also available to Foxtel subscribers.
That press release from Foxtel seems to try tell the public that everything is normal even though NBL won’t be on Fox Sports for the next two seasons.
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To be fair, it is in that Foxtel sports customers will still be able to watch every game - they’ll just have to do it via two different channels.
Having said that, I can’t recall Foxtel ever promoting something airing on a FTA network like they’ve done with SBS today. Suspect they wouldn’t have done that if it wasn’t for last week’s On Demand integration announcement
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