Anonymous
Years ago
Interesting one hd article
Just read an interesting article on the onehd deal.
Yesterday's news that One will be screening two of its three NBL games this weekend past 1am generated a heated response from basketball fans. "The NBL need to stand up to One on this," in reference to games being shown beyond the reported three-hour window allowed in the contract, was a common reaction.
However, even though it seems One have breached their contract with the league (or at least, breached the contract as we fans understand it), there are compelling reasons for Basketball Australia and the NBL to do nothing. At all. As in, just sit there and take it.
Why on Earth would they do that, you ask?
Well, the One-NBL deal requires more games to be shown as it progresses. It’s why One have gone from showing two local games to three this season - and it’s also why they’ll have to show five games by the 2014-15 season.
Think about that. If the current deal stays in place, before too long basketball will have five games a week on free-to-air television.
Could they get that kind of deal anywhere else? Absolutely not!
It’s tempting to tell the NBL to find another network, or to run back to Fox, but realistically: no such deal could be done this season, and in future seasons they’re much better off sticking with One. The number of games will increase and, perhaps more crucially, the NBL’s bargaining power is only going to improve, too.
The Australian reported in March 2010 that Ten will be responsible for production costs for the NBL “estimated to average $50,000 a game”. When you consider this is on top of the rights fee, it’s obviously a huge cost for a product that’s only being shown at 10.30pm or later.
Already, we’ve seen Ten try and broker a deal with the NBL to reduce the production cost burden. This season, they offered to show one game live on their main network at midday on Sundays instead of three games in total, an offer the league rejected.
In future years, Ten will only be more desperate to broker a deal. That means even if they plan on continuing with delayed broadcasts, the NBL could respond with something along the lines of: “We’ll take five games off the table if you show three of them live.”
Or, maybe even: “We’ll take five games off the table if you show Friday nights live on One and a Sunday afternoon game live on Ten.”
Or, if they’re feeling ballsy: “We won’t take five games off the table. If you want to keep throwing away money instead of trying to recoup the costs, go ahead.”
Now, the current situation is far from ideal, and the NBL would be under no illusions about that. However, the league would also be well aware that after this season, they start to hold a lot more bargaining power.
Maybe the NBL will have grounds to terminate the contract after this weekend. Maybe they won’t. But either way, it’s in the game’s best interest to persevere with the current deal.
Caving now is probably exactly what Ten wants them to do
