Well Perth is pretty good for local coverage of the Wildcats. Im talking moreso about national news coverage - eg ABC 24, Sunrise, Today etc. Pluse the NBL does produce its own content. Its easily available to the media.

Crowd wise 11800 at the Wildcats game, 8090 in Adelaide (full house) and nearly 7500 in Brisbane (bottom team) attended games this round alone. These crowds have been consistent all season at other venues too.

There is no way the league is dead. There is enough interest to at least mention it on these sports segments, and the content is just as easily available as other sports.

Over in Melbourne, the only time NBL is certain to make the commercial stations is when there's a bit of biffo or pushing and shoving on the court.
But that's what I've come to expect from footy-centric controlling interests who still see basketball as a threat and therefore don't want to give it any air-time.

From memory, Channel 7 bought the rights to basketball in the glory years of the 90s (when basketball was a real threat to footy), just so they could bury it rather than let other channels show it in prime-time.

Otherwise, as you say, we're ignored.

They give other sports with bigger crowds more focus. There are sports ahead of the NBL that, to 90% of Australians, are a major part of daily entertainment life in Australia. Tennis, cricket, AFL. Off-field non-news for these swamps all but major NBL controversies. Sad reality.

That said, are future generations watching the sports segment? Besides switching on ABC for the kids, my TV watching is purely Netflix or console. Haven't watched TV news in a couple of years at least.

I do agree that online sourcing of NBL is the way to go now, however that also applies to all sports. Yet the other sports still have that added boost by having it on mainstream TV, which the NBL doesnt.

One thing about getting everything you need online is that its not thrown in peoples faces. If your interested in hoops, you will look it up online. If not then its out of your mind. On TV, its kind of forced on you to watch so whether you like it or not you know its there.

For Channel 7, they have paid so much for the AFL rights they need to stir up interest in the sport to keep the sense of anticipation and excitement alive.

Most stories are fake news stories. Human interest stories created by the PR department of the footy club or AFL about some player walking the Kokoda Track to raise money for a charity, or to honour some past player.

Just watch and keep track of the story subject. Categorise them into actual news stories where they provide a game result, injury style stories, "human interest" story where we find out about a player "doing good" or "overcoming adversity", or just general crap.

I think you'll find there's a story every night just to keep the AFL in the news.

Agree Jack. Locally, Channel 7 is the worst for AFL puff pieces. In Perth, i switched off channel 7 years ago, though every so often I check to see if theyve improved (they havent). Got fed up hearing about Ben Cousins and Nic Naitanui everyday. I find that channel 9 and 10 give more balanced coverage of more sports and the Wildcats get a good look in there.

Basketball in general isn't really covered at all in Australian media. I occasionally come across a back page article whenever there's a newspaper around (I don't buy them) or a 1 minute segment at the tail end of the news, and the majority of the time it's some sensationalist nonsense regarding an Aussie in the NBA and they're over exaggerating whatever their achievement was.

Until it's covered much more regularly and accurately by corporate media I've accepted that if I want basketball news I know where to go look for it, probably much like others here.

Perfectly said AC. Agree with all of that.

Not getting FTA news coverage isn't a problem for the NBL fan, as we know where to get info. But it doesn't expose the league to the non-fans. The A-League gets free marketing from sports news segments, but the NBL doesn't. That's the issue that I see.

Haz, glad you've spotted that. As a habit, I record the C7 and C9 news each night. When I watch them, I fast forward all the adverts and the hype stories so it takes me about 10-15 mins (max) to watch the news.

You get to realise that commercial news is all about keeping people in fear and selling stuff, but you need to get the gist of what's going on.

On the VCR I had 41 days of C7 news and just going through them quickly I reckon there would have been 50% of days with an AFL story in the off season. Jarman Impie drink driving, AFL players wage negotiations, "new offence" for the Crows, "around the grounds" talking about Hawthorn training, then other Vic clubs training, Port's new sponsor etc, etc

C9 is not an AFL sponsor and not as bad.

The simple answer is the NBL isn't very popular in comparison to what is covered. Basketballs popularity as a sport generally doesn't necessarily translate into NBL coverage.

A more complex answer is a lack of mainstream media having a stake in the NBL. While AFL might be covered by all networks, Channel 7 pay for this product so they will do everything to maximise value including giving it substantial airtime in the news even off-season. Look at the coverage the TDU gets on channel 9 - live sports news from the village and interviews with Liggett etc.

What this means is - it's less about the news covering what interests people and more about the news creating the interest. For the NBL to get coverage, news items etc the league needs to be more than just doing well, it needs mainstream media to have a stake.

Adelaide's NBL coverage is outstanding in all forms of media. Perth's the same. Cairns and other regional areas like Illawarra the same.

Places like Melbourne and Sydney, perhaps Brisbane, don't cover it as extensively because football dominates their news agendas.

I sometimes think there's a perception the league isn't covered extensively in mainstream media when that's not actually really accurate.

C7 Adelaide ran a 90 second story tonight on the women's league. Another cross promotional puff piece "you can catch all the action on 7 starting February 2nd"

"On the VCR I had 41 days of C7"

Is Jack Toft the ultimate hipster?

Two different kettles of fish.
The commercial networks are all chasing the same demographic. They're not interested in balance, they want the big numbers so rather than give proportionate airtime, it works out better for them to concentrate on the biggest audiences.

With the LGBTBC, who knows. I suspect their instructions are to do stories on the most unpopular sports they can find, or the producers favourite.

End of the day, if you want NBL news, use the web.

Social media, pay TV like Foxtel and similar forms of coverage are the future and the future is now. We are suffering the same diluted and bias news feeds here as in the USA, it is not worth watching any longer because it is almost always commercially driven and subjected to popularity or money!

When the NBL gets itself established with a second Melbourne team, maybe a Vic Country team and one in Tassie plus another one somewhere else and we get those huge rivalry games, have some big sponsors secured and this new generation is sold on the NBL, then we will gain the free media space we crave,

NBA teams here in Aus will also help...

"Is Jack Toft the ultimate hipster?"

Only if it's a Betamax ;)