What time in the day was Adelaide V Melbourne?

That's a really good number for the NBL historically on Fox Sports. I believe the average average last season was just south of 15K on Fox.

Before this current deal, the highest ever regular season game on Fox was around the 30K mark.

Despite it being an inferior league on a global scale, and many people have called it unwatchable, the A-League is still miles ahead of the NBL as far as popularity and media coverage goes.

They're ratings always crush the NBL ratings. I dont agree thats how it should be (the NBL is miles better in my opinion), unfortunately its not a view shared by most sports fans as they for some reason prefer to watch awful football.

The basketball game was on at 9:30 pm Eastern States Time, so a late game especially for families.

I think if you grow up playing soccer/football then I can understand you will be keen to support your local A-League team. But I have been to a few matches....and they were just boring....and I love all live sports.

A-League is so far away from Premier League, whereas with basketball we have atleast a dozen players who could prob suit up for NBA teams and not be too far off the pace.

In related news both Sydney papers now have almost daily basketball stories. Some NBA and some NBL, which doesn't sound great but improvement on recent years. Yesterday they both had 1 NBL and 2 NBA which is positive step. Also positive is NBL stories weren't just match reports but rather like normal NRL or AFL where players, performance and upcoming games are discussed. Also close to back page not buried 7 pages in after horse racing. Won't happen overnight but positive progress.

As always it's only the FTA ratings that are really relevant. How did the Perth/Melb game rate on the ABC last night?

The ABC have really been coming to the party with a lot of highlights and mentions from their various sports reporters on their news coverage.

The ABC average was 35K last night.

Christ that's not good, the game the previous week was around 80K+ wasn't it?

43K for Perth v Illawarra the week before.

"As always it's only the FTA ratings that are really relevant"

I doubt Foxtel share your opinion

Who cares what Foxtel thinks they're getting free content which they need to fill their sports channels. Ratings on Foxtel are irrelevant.

What absolute rubbish

I'd say they have relevance to sponsors who pay good money to have their brand exposed, not to mention when trying to convince major networks to broadcast the NBL, who can compare numbers with what other league gets.

The good thing about NBL HQ now is they're finding lots of different ways to get eye balls on the NBL, even if it's not through traditional means, and that's important because getting good ratings is going to take a long, steady build.

I agree with you that they are getting free content, as we all know this is a fact but to say ratings on Foxtel are irrelevant, is simply not true. Ratings=Sponsorship for the NBL too.

If Fox didn't telecast every game live, I could almost bet you that major sponsors like Hungry Jacks, wouldn't have come on board

Thank you Paul

It's a 5 year deal with Foxtel to broadcast every game, the NBL pays for the production. Sponsors or no sponsors the games will be on Foxtel regardless what matters is the FTA ratings. Putting aside the fact only about 30% of people have Foxtel FTA is the only place where growth can be realised to get the NBL where it wants to go which would be on one of the commercial TV networks.

If Fox didn't telecast every game live, I could almost bet you that major sponsors like Hungry Jacks, wouldn't have come on board

Foxtel has no value to sponsors

It doesn't rate well enough to get a lot of games on FTA.

The Foxtel deal will be reviewed yearly, in this 5 year deal.

Why? Because if the ratings are not to their likely, they can can or alter the deal.

Simple as that

* liking

"Foxtel has no value to sponsors"

Really? Do you remember the days when pay tv had no adverts?

Now, there are plenty of adverts on Foxtel.

The business wasn't sustainable without Advertisers.

If you think Advertisers just throw money at Foxtel for the fun of it, then you are truly delusional

It doesn't rate well enough to get a lot of games on FTA.

"If Fox didn't telecast every game live, I could almost bet you that major sponsors like Hungry Jacks, wouldn't have come on board


What like last season? I bet you will find the main reason Hungry Jacks have come on board is to the tripling of games on FTA this season, not the same coverage on Pay TV as last season."

You can could have a point there, to an extent but I think you will find that it is a combination of FTA and the fact that the ratings improved on Fox.

The dollar value for HJ's sponsorship would have increased with the knowledge that Fox ratings were up quite a bit on last season

The Foxtel deal will be reviewed yearly, in this 5 year deal.

"Which is why it's on the less relevant Foxtel.

Foxtel needs the NBL almost as much as the NBL does. No BBL anymore, no AFL/NRL in summer, no Tennis until January otherwise their channels would be full of darts, hot dog eating contests and dwarf tossing."

Believe me, Foxtel certainly wouldn't die without the NBL.

They don't televise any sport for the hell of it. They see the potential of the NBL under LK's vision.

Trust me that if the ratings don't dramatically improve on Fox then sponsors will drop off and Fox will can the deal.

LK has admitted as much when he said their main goal this season is to increase television viewership. No television= no NBL

"Sponsors or no sponsors the games will be on Foxtel regardless."

The point is, without the product on TV league sponsors will drop away. The increase in sponsorship of the league the past two years has been significant.

Thank you again Paul

With streaming services and products like fetch TV becoming more prominent to viewing habits, FTA should be turning its attention to more news and sports. I think moving forward i wouldnt be surprised if there were more NBL on FTA in future seasons - regardless of poor ratings - because they need content.

Not to be mistaken that ratings aren't important though. Absolutely they are for sponsorship and adversting value, which is revenue for the league and will determine how much NBL is shown on TV.

But as far as being on TV opposed to not being on TV, the NBL definitely has a place on FTA and Fox and i doubt poor ratings will scare networks off any time soon (at worst LK will fund it himself - not ideal i know)

Ratings will impact on how much sponsorhip the league gets for sure, so it is still important but its a good product for TV and cant see it being reduced or going off air.

The point is, without the product on TV league sponsors will drop away.

The increase in sponsorship of the league the past two years has been significant.

If sponsors don't feel they're getting enough exposure they'll either drop away or decrease their investment. Ratings are relevant, even if they aren't really reliable.