Dwayne Russell said at the start of Sportsday on 3AW this evening that the NBL is close to sign a new FTA broadcast deal that would see Nine showing matches each weekend, while Foxtel would continue to show every match live. He said the NBL would announce the 2018/19 season fixture tomorrow (Wednesday 25/7) and with that the new TV deal. This will be the second time Nine broadcasts the national basketball competition (it previously showed the 2015/16 season in association with Foxtel) and will complement the networkās coverage of Suncorp Super Netball and Sunday afternoon NRL.
The NBL has also tweeted the 2018/19 fixture will be released at 7am AEST tomorrow.
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Didnāt Nine already try NBL a few years ago, very niche and gave up? Gutsy move. Hope thereās some modern changes. Desperate with no cricket and Aus Open not until half way through January?
Like what?
It is obvious Nine has got the NBL due to Andrew Bogut signing with the Sydney Kings for the forthcoming season.
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That seems like an odd reason to start showing NBL games.
That logic should mean theyāll start showing A League games if Usain Bolt signs for the Mariners.
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With the new NBL deal, I think Nine will also get to show next yearās exhibition series between Australian Boomers and Team USA featuring numerous NBA stars. That is huge.
It will be interesting to see how Nine covers weekend NBL games in January next year when they clash with the summer of tennis. It could be shown on 9GO! because it fits with the younger demographic.
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Going from the 5pm Saturday and 4pm Sunday games on SBS to possibly just Sunday arvos on 9 seems like a step back (and a similar deal to 2015-16).
At least the A League offered up the premium Saturday night game on One.
Also will every final be live?
Of course NBL.TV is accessible to everyone for a price (and in the past you could get a free season pass for one team).
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I think the difference is Andrew Bogut is a brilliant basketball player whereas the available evidence is that Usain Bolt canāt play soccer. Bolt trialed with three clubs and couldnāt get a contract, and in his only public game, which was a charity game, he was nothing to look at.
PS. And the chances of Bolt playing in Australia appears to be nil.
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Also I hope 9 or 10 or whoever picks up the rights makes the effort to produce the broadcast themselves. Ever since Australian production switched from Fox Sports to NBLās in house unit in 2016, the broadcast has looked pretty cheap compared to other sporting codes.
I doubt it will happen though if 9 pick it up.
And that is supposed to translate to systemic ratings bump?
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Nine aired NBL Sundays at 3pm during the 2015/16. Managed to air 14 live matches (AEDT) and 9 delayed in this timeslot Treated it poorly, including cutting off Game 2 of the Grand Final series to go to the NRL pregame. Not sure why the NBL wouldnāt continue with SBS? After all, they managed to show 43 matches live in HD.
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SBS aired live games at 5.30pm Sat on Viceland and 3pm on SBS.
I didnāt mention Bolt - I was replying to someone else about Bolt. He really has nothing to do with it.
But in either case, itās a ratings grab based pretty much on one player alone - the competition as a whole needs to be appealing
Exactly, and it obviously isnāt in its current form in this country. All the broadcasters are doing are broadcasting the game, thereās no work in trying to improve the product which (I think) needs to be done to attract a lot more people to it.
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NBL chief operating officer Andy Crook told Dwayne Russell on Sportsday tonight the announcement on the FTA deal is still around five weeks away, as the league is still in talks with two broadcasters, one of which is Nine.
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Well at least nine has the cricket rights again. 
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Not domestically of course, Only some overseas tournaments like the World Cup and the Ashes in England.
I was trying to be a humorous, a failed dad jokeā¦ On radio. . Given Nine will own MSR.
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Nine has added āWide World of SPORTSā underneath its logo on the football coverage
The course for next Januaryās Tour Down Under was announced yesterday. For the first time in the raceās 20 year history, the final stage will move out of Adelaide CBD to a hill top finish at Willunga.
Given Tour Down Under clashes with the first week of Australian Open tennis, and Nine is covering both, I think the cycling will be relegated to 9Gem (plus live streaming on 9Now) with the tennis on main channel and 9GO!.
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