Forgot to link the article:

https://nbl.com.au/news/nbl-breaks-broadcast-crowd-records

NBL has been touting a huge percentage increase in viewership at the start of each season without disclosing any figures.

It means nothing, just like Sydney's mysterious 'record membership' numbers.

The attendance numbers are promising.

The TV figures are on face value good, but usually super cherry picked. For example, fewer games on FTA means more for streaming and the headline is "record numbers of viewers*

*across streaming services"


I have no doubt the numbers are objectively good, but the way the NBL presents them if you just read these pieces every year they must be up to NRL figures by now.

50k attendance particularly promising when Sydney was one of the only teams who didn't host (along with Cairns and Tasmania). If you swapped Illawarra or Brisbane with Sydney could've easily been close to 60k

I wondered whether the switch to launching on GF weekend was based on anything other than cross promoting the NBL via Scottie Pippen. Otherwise it seems a strange logic.

I'd love to see the nbl release member numbers plus criteria.

Combined AUS/NZ viewership and stream wise, I wonder what a decent average is? Wonder how they’re comparing with ALeague now that it’s on paramount (which I imagine stifled growth a bit?)

We’d be hoping for what? 30-40k average these days? Or is that too ambitious from the 8-16k average back in the day.

So sports fans are able to cope with basketball and football happening on the same weekend after all hey. Who'da thunk it.

Starting in GF week makes some sense. If the GF is only in Melbourne, then all other cities will have the opportunity to have uninterrupted attendance so long as not during the actual GF. Sports fans will be still at a peak also from supporting their football team, and the carry over should increase engagement at an emotional level

GF in Sydney as well. But the crowds showed there is a market there because not much else going on sports wise apart from those two GFs.

Luuuc, you might be responding to all the critics who doubted a successful weekend of NBL against the AFL and NRL GFs, but it wasn't that long ago in its history that this would genuinely be a crazy idea. The league has come a long way and I'm glad they started it this way.

Who knows - one day maybe the AFL will change its GF to a night game. Until that happens, it's a free slot for prime time sport.

Exactly. 20+ years ago the NBL changed from winter to summer in large part to get some clear air away from the dominant football codes, and I think it's still a valid place for them to stay at the moment, especially since cricket seems to be less popular than ever both on tv and in attendance.

But a week or two ago is not ancient history and that is when many were worried about a one-weekend overlap between the NBL and the football codes. A weekend in which 15 of the 17 NRL teams and 16 of the 18 AFL teams were no longer involved. That equates to plenty of fans ready to dive into a new season, and that appears to have been what happened.

It was a slight risk but it paid off nicely.
Not sure how much impact Pippen had on that. I'm guessing not much. Seemed a bit strange and desperate to me, but I might be in the minority on that point.

They were smart with the way they did the fixture and avoided Melbourne on Saturday/Sydney on Sunday.

But the risk is more around momentum and coverage in the sense of people knowing the nbl is on.

Pippen probably did one valuable thing: have the nbl logo on media everywhere through the two most expensive advertising days of the year.

I think Pippen really added value to the opening round. He may have been pricey, but it was worth it in my opinion. The amount of air time he gave the NBL on mainstream media gave its justification. I mean, even the AFL GF pre game had a decent 4 minute segment with Pippen and Longley, literally promoting the NBL - during an AFL broadcast that is incredible. The AFL generally promotes nothing other than their own product.

Big success IMO.

The afl normally only supports their product, LK and his team are smart cookies though, I'm hoping that it can hold together for a long, long time.

Luuuc, you might be responding to all the critics who doubted a successful weekend of NBL against the AFL and NRL GFs, but it wasn't that long ago in its history that this would genuinely be a crazy idea. The league has come a long way and I'm glad they started it this way.

Did they? I thought they purposefully avoided clashing with the AFL GF, but had to deal with the NBL GF clashing with AFL round 1 as a result.

Regardless, it got virtually no attention anyway back. Look how much it got this time around. The NBL is on the up when it chooses to go up with the AFL on its biggest stage and still draw big crowds. Impressive.

Did they?

It's been a "40 percent increase" year on year for basically every year that LK has been involved in the league. I am sure the numbers are still relatively modest but we can look at the last deal as an indication that the league has been growing on TV and is expected to keep doing so - the Sunday LIVE games on Peach, the fact that its a 14 million dollar (if memory serves me) paid deal. If they keep on this 40 percent increase trajectory theyre on their way to yet another tidy TV deal.

I thought the Pippen deal was initially a bit cringe. The guy doesn't actually know the league so having him talk about it didn't make a great deal of sense to me. But it's true to say that he's had the NBL talked about on TV, during a grand final week for NRL and AFL and that's probably reflected in viewership. Now the search begins for the next name who can come in and do that next season. You'd have to look at "glory days", 90s NBA icons like your Jordans, Magics, Birds, Shaq type guys that the general public will know as household names.

The Next Stars, the NBL v NBA games, keeping young Australian talent in Australia (ie, Toohey), the much maligned and yet media-effective "second best league in the world" catch phrase, a consistent TV presence which is growing year on year, the establishing of a Tasmania JJ team that has taken the state by storm, the TV deal, the NEWSCORP DEAL (that people don't talk about nearly enough). The NBL is doing a whole lot right right now. Packed stadiums across the country. The NBL is only going up.

I'd love to see some numbers to be honest because it’s hard to understand if we are talking 8-12k per game turning into 20-25k per game or if we are talking closer to 40-50k per game average with some breaching 70-80k at the top end.

"the Sunday LIVE games on Peach, the fact that its a 14 million dollar"
3 years/45 million was the reported rumoured figure but I assume that’s not pure cash, we’d probably be talking collateral in there for a portion.

Don’t get me wrong, today is a lot better than the last where they had like 2 or 3 games a week on Fox and having to peruse the monthly magazine to see what little 36ers games were broadcast.

But also, Peach is the third string channel on the lowest performing commercial network. It probably ranks something like 11th most watched FTA channel which would be a super duper low base. Those channels are almost like ESPN Classic in the US where it’s there for no cost pure profit.

“ theyre on their way to yet another tidy TV deal.”

Hopefully but also competition dictates this. Last time they had a good scenario of ESPN vs Stan. Now, Disney is slashing costs, Fox continue to slash costs and Nine/Stan have since signed greater money Tennis deals and Olympics. Add the current environment we are in, I don’t think Nine/Stan will be as competitive or willing to overpay as they were last time.

NBL might have to settle for something similar but might find a better FTA/main channel deal? I’d say with Ten but they committed a lot of money to the A-League only to push it to 10Bold so they don’t even want that on their main channel. Maybe Nine outside of the tennis season might have willingness? It’s definitely easier to convince a network since it’s outside of ratings season.

“ I thought the Pippen deal was initially a bit cringe.”
Agreed - cringeworthy but successful given the coverage and in the context of someone willing to spend a million to bring Charlize Theron down for a South Yarra building development, it’s really a low risk high reward for LK.

In terms of numbers, what are you looking for? Total reach, reach on TV, average audience on Fox, including Kayo? They still aren't racking up good pure TV numbers (15-30K average audience which is good for ESPN, but not enough to get back as a Fox produced sport or turn FTA executive heads), but their overall reach has grown a lot, and it appears that's their biggest focus now as the way advertisers/sponsors gauge exposure has definitely changed.

3 years/45 million was the reported rumoured figure but I assume that's not pure cash, we’d probably be talking collateral in there for a portion.

Don't get me wrong, today is a lot better than the last where they had like 2 or 3 games a week on Fox and having to peruse the monthly magazine to see what little 36ers games were broadcast.