For those who think Im talking about graphics, Im not, Im talking about the bigger picture which generates ratings, which generates revenue, which allows clubs to be more sustainable and the league to be more professional.
Something along these lines is why it is so important for the NBL in particular:
- The NBL is rarely mentioned in most cities' mainstream TV, radio and print media
- Therefore the official broadcaster needs to be promoting through their news so people know it's on. This isnt happening
- One alternative is ads to let people know the broadcasts are on
- CH 10's ads are rare and when on show generic highlights of players most people dont know and simply say something like Adelaide v Sydney, this Sunday. ie they dont give casuals any reason to watch
- So we get to game night and most people dont know the game is on or have been given little reason to watch
- The broadcast starts and we get 10 minutes of talking heads and ads, with no/very few highlights to bait someone into watching on. It's like starting a novel with a long conversation between two peripheral characters the reader has never heard of
- The game starts and most of the few replays we see are of fouls, while much of the commentary is about the said fouls
- We reach the TV timeout and get an ad followed by more talking in the timeout
- By this stage we are 20 minutes into the broadcast and casual viewers have been given very little reason to watch on. It might turn out to be a great game but theyre long gone
- As the game wears on we continue to see lots of replays of fouls, and hear commentary where the research, knowledge and fluency is poor compared to other sports' broadcasts
- We see very few replays of good plays from this game, no clips from other games to give context to the broadcast nor any of the best plays from around the league or features of players (which will also cant see on the league website FFS)
- At the end of the game the promo of the next game is often wrong or non-existent
- There is no consistency of when a viewer's home team will be shown next
- There is no magazine show highlighting the best features of the week's play and helping form personalities, and when Ten tried this it was done so poorly I still cringe thinking about it
From the first post to the last Ten and the NBL have failed to produce a quality TV product, and that is shown by noticeable increases in attendance amongst 6 of the 8 teams since late last decade, memberships and web traffic is up, but TV ratings have been stagnant since the NBL moved to Ten.
If the league cant get a decent TV deal once this one is up its very existence as a pro comp is in doubt, so getting the product right has to be one of the main priorities, even if it costs the league some money. Invest in your No1 marketing tool.
If they can do this, it will help the clubs capitalise on the good work they have done increasing their supporter bases.