My 2 cents worth. Sorry it's long.
Channel 10 were bought out by a big US network. They talked up access to the US network’s reality tv and drama productions. Sport was hardly mentioned.
But if 10 lose BBL, they have nothing for summer sport. In the bad old days they also had no major sports. I think that’s why they tried NBL. Channel 10 were always the poor cousin. Channel 7 were also well behind the Packer behemoth that was channel 9. But channel 7 worked with the VFL/AFL and the rise of the AFL empire helped push 7 up in ratings and share value. Channel 10 got left behind. They had V8s (I don’t know if they still do and don’t care either) but V8s will probably lose interest now you can’t buy or dream of buying an "Aussie" Falcodore.
Channel 10 tried to compete in news by getting a clear run in an earlier time slot, and even poached George Donician (sp?) from sbs, but I’m not sure it ever really worked for ratings/ad revenue. Would they want to poach the NBL from sbs? I think the sbs timeslots should work for getting kids and families interested (not much competition and after kids play their weekend sport) but kids and families now are so entwined in Netflix and live streaming that a lot of them don’t even bother with fta tv.
New media (social media, Netflix/streaming) will/has change/d the landscape for how we consume entertainment. Therefore entertainment producers (including sports) need to think ahead of current trends. People used to watch sport as a family on the lounge before sitting down for a meal at the family dinner table. Now kids are in their rooms on social media and a lot of them eat there away from family too. In the UK, only about 30% of households even have a family dining table. Will Aus follow this trend? Therefore the NBL really need to market the product to kids/teens and their parents in different ways. Selling a sports product and growing it will get harder, not easier. I think the NBL app, Fox and fta mix is LK’s way of trying to do a difficult job. It’s probably best to have this diversified strategy, but how will they know which parts of this strategy are working?
