LK the god

All the LK bashers are getting pushed further under their rocks where they live. Can you even imagine if BA were still in charge where we'd be with this TV situation... or anything for that matter.

LK thank you! This will be big.

BA got a FTA deal that paid the league money. LK is yet to do that

I've always said to the people whining that certain teams aren't doing well that they should wait for the TV deal - well it's coming. And within 60-90 days we should get the biggest indicator yet of where this league is heading. A decent TV deal on a commercial channel that cares enough to push and promote the league will do wonders.

No surprise they are all interested now that Bogut is playing. So every team will likely have 4 games on free to air - when they play Sydney

Sounds to me like it will be a shared deal between Fox and Channel 9 or 10. Hopefully its main channel exposure too not on One or GEM. Good signs though, he's got the best in the business negotiating.

"Yes LK is paying for the TV coverage. Because no one wanted it. Last I heard was $3mill."

Pfft, shut up you moron. You heard nothing.

Good to hear there is interest, but frankly it would be embarrassing if there wasn't considering the Boomers vs USA rights will be attached to the deal. I'd say that the 'we'll get the best deal for basketball even if it isn't the best commercial deal' talk is in response to offers from networks who are willing to pay for those games but not willing to commit to the actual NBL product.

If it comes off, this will be huge.

For the foreseeable future, the NBL needs mainstream media to attract mainstream sponsors (ie some of those with deep pockets and businesses to cross-promote the sport with like HJ's was with discounts and freebies last season).

If it comes off, could we have a network localising the broadcast like 7 do with AFL? On Qld and NSW channels, they televise the "local" teams’s games. In practice this means I can often choose between 2 games in the same or overlapping time slots. It’s usually a supposedly good game and a “local team” game. This could potentially mean 2 states getting a broadcast of game X, with some other games going nation-wide as a “game of the day” deal. SBS can’t offer that advantage.

Whichever network takes it, they’ll obviously also want Boomers’ games longer term, especially when the NBA guys can play. Potential or reigning Olympic medallists tend to attract that sort of interest.

Even getting this article published in the Newscorp paper that’s the biggest self-interested promoter of NRL is a big step forward.

LK isn’t perfect, but his promotion of the product seems to be attracting more commercial interest than we’ve ever had since the good old 1980s and early 1990s.

A similar concept at NBA league pass should work.
NBL games all still on app for monthly fee. If the game is on FTA tv is will be blacked out on the app to make you tune in. I think that will be the model TV would be happy with. Win win either way. Full replays accessible on app though

Yeah the goal of this deal would be exposure and not having to pay for the broadcasts anymore. I think Fox has all the Boomers games for a number of years but NBL has the two Team USA v Boomers game next year as I think the NBL are the promoters for the event. Those two games are arguably more important for a broadcaster than any qualifiers or World Cup games.

"Even if it is a better commercial deal for me, I still won't do it if it doesn’t suit basketball.

“That is how the sport got itself into trouble in the first place."

clear dig at BA, and on target IMHO

Fox offered the NBL more money to stay , BA took less money and the FTA upside

LK doing nothing new here

^^incorrect. OneHD were throwing around big $$.
Fox sports were not in ballpark $$ wise, especially after the viewing
Numbers of NBL games on fox sports were poor

The contract BA signed with TEN sounded good in principle but it was the 'near live' clause in the contract that hurt.

Sorry Habsa you are off the mark and incorrect

The NBLs deal with Ten/One was because they had just launched a sports channel and needed content, they even gave Carfino his own show. They had IPL which they eventually had the rights to and didn't even show. It’s fair to say BA fell into a good situation for a year before Murdoch stripped the sports aspect and Ten pulled a 180 to try and get away from the NBL as quickly as possible.

Seven and Nine are full of sports content, if they want the NBL then it’s credit to how far things have progressed in a few years and probably the canny workings of leveraging Aussies in the NBA.

The channel Ten who screwed the NBL on multiple occasions is probably gone with the CBS takeover - they’ve only got Motorsport so there’s potential for NBL to have a good working relationship with Ten. Only issue is how keen Ten are to push how many hours of NBL in an area that’s already got a glut between cricket tennis and soccer. There may be more nonsports market to grab than sports market both eyeballs wise and advertiser dollars.

A good question is - what's an ideal realistic scenario broadcasstbwise for the NBL?

For instance: a multi year deal as follows...

Fixtures spanning Thurs-Sunday aside from key holidays: NYE, Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, Australia Day.

Every game live on Fox Sports and NBL TV;
3 games a week Live on Ten - Friday night; Sat night; Sun arvo (does this clash with V8s?)

Either games favoured to local market if available; or Ten aren’t so keen on giving up so many prime time nights we could see greater number of Perth games on Friday nights pushing back prime time factor.

Sunday pregame show with highlights of prev matches on Ten

Broadcast controlled by NBL for consistency and quality

If Ten pick up the coverage, I hope there's an iron clad agreement to show games live as intented - not a loosely worded verion of "near-live". Even if the people at Ten now are different to those who shafted the league, I still cant trust this network.

Personally I would like to see Seven get the coverage (if not, then 9). They are the biggest and most successful network, have the best ratings, and their secondary chanels 7mate and 7two are much more popular than One.

Channel 7 just got the rights to the cricket including the Big Bash signing with them would be disastrous.

Nine (Tennis) or Ten (no more Big Bash) are the only sensible options.

Ten have the A-League and I thought they still had the BBL? If 7 have BBL as well then yeah I'd rather the NBL on 9. Although tennis takes up a lot of prime time too.

Haz -

Seven and Fox have all cricket between them - Seven has 40ish Big Bash games and all home test matches.

Seven also has the tennis in 2019.

Nine has nothing in summer 2019; Tennis including Australian Open in 2020.

Ten has Motorsport and one game of a league per week on ONE (not on Ten)

It's almost a joke to suggest that channel 10-one has Motorsport as they basically only show MotoGP live and predominantly the coverage of Supercars and F1s is highlight packages...

It was asked if NBL would clash with Supercars and the answer is Bathurst weekend, Gold Coast and Newcastle but I'd hope that NBL would alter their schedule around things such as Bathurst (I absolutely hate that NBL games are played in NSW that weekend, let Motorsport have that weekend and get Illawarra and Sydney to have Doomsday Doubles or Sunshine swings (can Brisbane be included in that?).

I would love to have channel 7 have the NBL but not under the current sporting landscape, it has to be channel 9... but my fear is that they will use NBL to promote NRL season non-stop and then try and put NBL on GEM or GO! when playoffs come around to appease their NRL audiences but we can only hope that the NBL is a ratings winner and that channel 9 will want to show playoffs on main channel.

Thanks KET. Well in that case Channel 9 would be my preference then. I just can't trust Ten even with new management. And honestly if it gets put on Gem or Go its still a great outcome. I dont see that as being a big problem. It would already be a massive upgrade on SBS and definitely ABC as far as ratings and commercial potential.

And dont forget a lot of AFL is shown on 7mate so to keep things in perspective, for the NBL to be shown on Go or Gem would still be a big win for the sport.

If 9 gets it Bill Lawry could do special comments.

Imagine him and homicide trading cheap shots.

I wouldn't be overly happy if NBL wasn't put on a HD channel and I don't believe Go or 7mate are HD>

He wants to get it on free to air so his investments in clubs and the league increase in value..hence it doesn't matter about commercial money back into the league rather exposure!

Its two fold is money into the league vital in the short/medium terms compared to exposure? Depends how deep owners pockets really are and how long teams can sustain losses.

In the long term its building value in his investments which is where the rel payoff is lets not forget ROI is the king!

right on, Bathurst is just the lynch pin in a 30 million dollar rights payment to Supercars

Akin to saying no one cares about the AFL grand final.

You just compared Bathurst to the AFL grandfinal...

My point is that if AFL and Supercars had nothing but the GF and Bathurst they would still attract significant FTA deals

Hopefully LK having the Australia v USA game right is the same

For the record Bathurst pulls eyeballs globally than AFL

"For the record Bathurst pulls (more) eyeballs globally than AFL"

Very appropriate visual.

Pulling/stabbing etc eyeballs was an established method of torturing those heretics who didn't follow the orthodox view. Exactly how I feel about the V8s.