Hurls
Years ago

The roar says its do or die for basketball. BS!

The new roar article claims that its do or die for basketball in australia, claiming NBL.TV is some how a misstep and that all games should be live on 10.. obviously this individual is living in a dreamland! http://www.theroar.com.au/2012/10/09/nbl-tv-do-or-die-for-aussie-basketball/

every year is supposidly do or die for the NBL.. its all I ever hear or read. The Slingers inclusion was do or die, every time a team leaves is do or die.. a new head CEO is do or die.. new TV deal is do or die.. damn near new mascot.. do or die.. you get my point!

But it is NEVER do or die for the NBL.. the NBL is the little engine that could. It chugs along, 35 years later past every obstacle (and there has been as many obstacles as there has been seasons).. but every year.. there it is again, with its modest 5 thousand seat stadiums and its even more modest coverage.

In the face of it being called a 'weak' league, I dare say its considerably strong. It weathers every storm that comes its way and always has, lesser leagues have crumbled. Better financed leagues have crumbled. Basketball in this country IS STRONG because of a modest yet passionate fan base, and thoes who will never ever ever see it die.

To say NBL.TV's coverage on the visual end has been patchy at best would be true.. but you cannot fault what it is there tryning to do, and the fact of the matter is.. it WILL get better.. with every round and season, they will get on top of that.. we are seeing birth pangs of the NBL.TV system and It is going to be on the way up. In regards to the TV coverage... How can ANYONE hate on the TV coverage, If you cant settle with less then perfect.. then it makes no sense to follow the NBL.. which is truly the Aussie Battler league.. and will always have something as an issue with it, and strangely enough to me it is part of its appeal.

On court talent, however.. how can ANYONE call the NBL a 'weak league' in that regard? only someone who has never played the game of basketball themselves could say that. This is not your local district club level we are talking about here, SEABL is outclassed by NBL massively. We are talking about a league that holds up extremely well internationally. Talent wise it would be the envy of the chinese league (except for Marbury) it would be the en=vy of the philo league, of the mexican league... the NBL's best teams could undoubtedly hold there own against Euroleague teams. the fact that we have the talent we do is a testiment to what we do, and the fact that europe routinely poaches our players is a testiment to the talent that we DO have. ok.. im not saying NBL is on the same level as euroleague, I am saying our best teams could compete competantly with them. I think that is a fair thing to say.

Also, how many EX NBA players have there asses handed to them in the NBL? You couldnt have said that 15 uyears ago, but now its true... The NBL and Australian Basketball has its own style.. that is not like the one played elsewhere.. and for that alone, the league is worth watching... if you TRULY love basketball.

Just a thought...

NBL is never going to die... its just some people want it to! people from other codes...

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Nice one Hurls

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Libertine  
Years ago

It's a bit hard to be objective on a bball site, but like it or not, there's no money in Aus basketball. It's been slowly seeping out for the past 10+ years.

Unless the new BA / NBL do something miraculous, the status quo is not going to change much - basketball will be a 'minority' sport in the short term at least, and struggle to attract the big $$$ from sponsors or TV.

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Chewy316  
Years ago

Perfectly said Libertine. Every sport that is really successful on an international stage stems from having significant money to invest in it.

It wasn't too long ago in the grand scheme of things that basketball in Australia was booming, so one would think that there's a market for basketball here. The matter that the heads of bball need to address is managing a way to tap back into that market whilst keeping it fresh so they don't lose them, as well as attracting new people to the sport. All this happening whilst the major sports in Australia are going pretty well to say the least. Combine that with an iffy economy, and it's clear that Bball australia has a massive task at hand!

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Wildcat Fan  
Years ago

Great post Hurls!

Reply #382555 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

Hurls, ignore the article. It was ridiculous.

Reply #382559 | Report this post


skull  
Years ago

WTF is the Roar??

Reply #382560 | Report this post


Wildcat Fan  
Years ago

The roar is a sports website that covers pretty much every sport except basketball. Well, there's the odd article here and there by the experts, but mostly any basketball stories written are by amateurs such as the idiot that wrote this article.

It's 99% soccer, rugby afl and cricket, and 1% everything else including hoops. I gave up on that website a while ago because the coverage was poor.

Reply #382566 | Report this post


Beantown  
Years ago

Anyone who thinks online coverage of sports is a 'misstep' has no clue. Just another half-baked fan opinion piece by the looks.

Reply #382577 | Report this post


HO  
Years ago

The premise of the article is a bit silly however no one it appears has debated the risk of NBL.tv.

That risk being a low subscriber base.

The other codes have played this game more carefully, and with more power obviously. NBL are wrong in spruiking the groundbreaking nature of the nbl.tv deal - AFL have offered a similar service through Telstra for some time now. Its not like for like in terms of actual service, but its close. It is also the broadcast coverage, so its better.

AFL have done this with a view to a significant change in how their rights deals come together in four years time - including the opportunity to offer a massive direct subscriber deal to members and reducing the reliance on FTA and PTV revenues. The establishment of the significantly invested in AFL Media further points to this.

Acknowledging the NBL's impotence, the risk is that they become a subscriber only solution within three years. That is, rather than a mix of FTA/PTV and subscriber revenue, none of the networks will want their content and revenue becomes subscriber only, backed by what advertising they can harness.

NBL is then totally at the mercy of subscribers, and if the base is not at least 40-50,000, the advertisers (online, video etc.) and partners will see them as even more of an irrelevancy than they are now.

As i understand it, subscriber base for nbl.tv is around 3-4k. This is just a little smaller than tiny in the Australian sports landscape. The risk has yet to be played out, because the slightly improved FTA deal, and the revenue it brings, is masking it. I think we have under-estimated the play the NBL have made, because we are all in love with the service, but moving to the subscriber model has happened here because of desperation, not because of strength.

Reply #382603 | Report this post


Mick  
Years ago

NBL.tv is a risk. It's great for fans, but I doubt it would be viable in and of itself.

I can imagine the subscriber numbers being pretty low, probably only in the hundreds or low thousands at this stage.

I think NBL.tv should continue running even at a loss, and even offer single game subscriptions.

Write it off as an advertising cost. Webcasts are not expensive to produce.

It's vital that they don't drop it due to the low number of early adopters. Lower the price if you have to. But do not drop it.

It's probably not ever going to make a profit, but that's not the point. The point is getting the game out there and giving the long-suffering fans some ammunition to stick up for their beloved league for once.

The NBL is finally starting to wake up to the fact that if you keep the core fans happy, they will do a lot of your advertising work for you.


Reply #382606 | Report this post


Mick  
Years ago

Also that whole article is based on the idiotic assumption that the NBL is "choosing" to show delayed telecasts and only one live game a week.

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HO  
Years ago

But Mick, the NBL cannot survive, let alone thrive, without significant corporate support.

Corporate Australia don't hear messages from core fans. They look at Nielsen or whatever and judge the product. If they see 100,000 viewers, they go ok, there is interest here - if they see 5000 viewers, they go meh....nup, not investing in that.

The risk is not about whether nbl.tv is a loss maker or not. It's about the fact that this is now the NBL's major play in broadcast, because after the Ten deal they will likely not have an FTA/PTV provider.

If this broadcast play yields tiny subscriber numbers, what will the NBL have to sell in 2015 or whenever the deal with Ten expires.

Right now the Ten deal is rumoured to be 800k per season. For the NBL that is a lot of cash to replace.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

The Roar said no such thing. Some dopey Kiwi blogger annoyed at not seeing her beloved NZ team's game televised wrote the article which, aside from questionable premise, had dubious facts, appalling arithmetic worthy of a Labor politician & equally poor English.

Here is the source:
http://game-face.net/

Reply #382611 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

This suggests that roar said it:

http://www.theroar.com.au/2012/10/09/nbl-tv-do-or-die-for-aussie-basketball/

Reply #382616 | Report this post


SMA  
Years ago

A valid point in the Roar article is that MORE people would be watching NBL if it were on "actual TV".

NBL.TV is an innovative concept but it is difficult to market, even at $19 month.

Free TV is the immediate future of a NBL. It generates a sense community with live games. Get a group of mates around and watch some hoops!

NBL.TV but it won't be as wide spread.

I don't know how the deal works but can One HD generate revenue for the NBL because they don't have 'real' ads?

The product is solid but there has to be a flow on effect to get some chatter - rather than preaching to the converted.

Reply #382619 | Report this post


Michael D  
Years ago

I'm not going to defend the article itself, but it should be pointed out that it is NOT talking about the opinion of The Roar as a website. It is the opinion of one particular fan columnist.

The Roar also publishes pieces like my own, which have been overwhelmingly positive of the new broadcast arrangements for this season: http://www.theroar.com.au/2012/10/03/basketball-australia-have-built-it-now-nbl-fans-must-come/

To confuse one article as the opinion of the entire site would be like taking the opening post of a thread here and saying "hoops.com.au says ...!", which would not be correct of course.

Finally, if you want to have your own opinion heard or provide some balance to the debate, The Roar is more than happy to publish your own contribution: http://www.theroar.com.au/contribute/submit/

Cheers,
Michael DiFabrizio (an expert columnist at The Roar)

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Roar

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Anonymous  
Years ago

....said the Tiger King

Reply #802732 | Report this post




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