Since I don't have Foxtel any longer I am keen to know the deal...

I'm guessing it isn't going as well as hoped (that doesn't necessarily mean bad) as you'd generally want to have your TV deal in place before the schedule is announced.

I'd say they've now resigned themselves to the "secondary channel" option where as they may have initially been pushing for primary channel coverage.

For the record I don't see anything wrong with those secondary channels. How many people don't have/watch them these days?

The reality is that NBL rates very poorly in Australia.No ratings means no commerciality.

Bogut isn't a big enough draw card to change that IMO. Channel Ten got burnt twice before by BA so cant see them being interested.

Channel 9 merging with Fairfax throws an interesting dynamic into the mix.

Channen 9 buying Fairfax changes things how exactly?

Channel 10 got burnt by BA? I thought it was the other way around.

Out of sight is out of mind and the Australian sporting audience is a little dumbed down when it comes to basketball.

Compared to some sports, well most other sports the media moguls of Australia love, somehow basketball usually gets very little air play.

Yet, in basketball we currently have the most NBA players we have ever had, including possibly an all-star, we have the most dominant female WNBA player seen in quite some time, our juniors continue to do well on a world stage, one of our legends is coming home to play here, we have amazing talent at US colleges, in Europe and domestically the NBL is displaying exciting games with the potential to expand the league.

If we were talking about soccer, football, cricket or some such sports people would be all over it, but the ones who control what we watch just don't seem to want to push it.

I love many sports, but what annoys me most about our sports media is that we don't give our juniors the coverage they deserve, those on a world stage especially... Unless you are a YouTuber that is!

^Ya, me :)

bugger

Nothing wrong with being on a secondary channel as game times on weekends generally haven't been a time of high receivership anyway.

Sunday afternoon games are great for the gate but poor in terms of eye balls on screens (particularly in summer!), so hopefully they can get the Friday night games as the main FTA push for additional ratings, that said many of the Friday night games are poor drawing fixtures (NZ, Cairns, Hawks)

I'm assuming it's Nine as it's likely they and Fairfax were talking of merging around the time the NBL were set to announce the TV deal and now on the morning it's announced the merger is going through the NBL bobs up to say a TV deal is imminent.

BA made promises to Channel 10 like Brisbane back etc. That didn't happen under BA but under LK.

Channel 9 and Fairfax are merging, one is not buying the other. This creates a new dynamic media player in the market place that can cover print, digital and TV.

You say potato....I say buying

"This is a Nine takeover of Fairfax folks, it ain't a merger," tweeted Katherine Murphy, political editor of the Guardian Australia.

I think you're going to get better than one game on a secondary channel a week. I wouldn't be surprised if you got one game at a decent time on a major channel, two on one of the secondary channels, an hour highlights on ABC, and all games on Foxtel.

The issue as alluded to by Loeliger is no doubt the digital rights. Nine/Fairfax would want/expect the rights to that but I'm sure the league wants to hold onto NBL TV. As an NBL TV subscriber during the season I hope so too.

"Channel 9 and Fairfax are merging, one is not buying the other."

I hear it's going to be called Nine, which tells what kind of merger it will be.

God I hope NBL TV is untouched....despite my intentions to watch games on TV, I foudn myself watching more games on NBL TV and games of the other teams on replay on demand after the kids have gone to sleep.