What is most disappointing is that for basketball fans the wnbl is on pretty much the same time on sbs on Saturday so you have to record one and watch it later.

The two keagues obviously did not talk to one another when looking at broadcast times.

100% agree on the NBL and WNBL being played at the same time. Very hard to watch both at the same time!

But getting on 9go was a landmark deal!

You need a profile to watch through 9Go online but getting a profile is as simple as going onto the site and linking it to your Facebook.

As for the definition, yeah, it sucks. But people are watching things on 9Go and dealing with it so I suppose there's a good chance some will brave it to watch NBL.

But yes, should really have gone somewhere HD. The only win here is exposure and to be fair, Channel Nine have done plenty of talk about the NBL lately.

Will be interesting to see what the ratings were for the first game.

Think it might be better to watch on nbl.tv which while not HD, is better than this 576 rubbish.

Nine are also plugging NBL through articles on ninemsn. Including video highlights. Gotta be good to have a mainstream "news site" putting up 2 or 3 stories at the same time.

I don't have Foxtel so I appreciated being able to easily watch on TV. Great game.

There could be a larger play here: see how it rates, build exposure through plugs on Nine.

Maybe next year key games get televised on Nine and year after maybe it gets shifted to Nine

Yeah, you have to think about the long game. The NBL was never going to get a fantastic deal straight out the gates. But if the ratings and response is encouraging it wouldn't surprise me if they throw a few games on 9HD, such as finals games, and then build from there. They've been doing a fantastic job plugging the league

Re: long game on 9

In peak time viewing, secondary channels ratings are roughly equivalent to sbs main channel. For daytime viewing, there's less competition and less market size/ total viewers. 2:30 pm on weekend afternoons should be a good gauge to see if NBL can perform well in tv ratings.

In NSW and Qld, even the AFL is only broadcast on a secondary channel (7Mate until now) except for the grand final (and other finals involving Sydney Swans for NSW).

To expect the NBL to be given a primary channel at this stage is hoping for too much. The articles on nine.com.au will help. The close games will help. Having HJs on board to buy up advertising space will help.

It’s now up to the league and franchises to produce a quality product and package it well. Competing sports are generally watched by an older demographic (eg cricket and tennis). Big bash and A League are night time sports.

If the games and entertainment package crate excitement and attract return viewers (who might stumble upon a broadcast accidentally at this stage) there’s a bright future.

I think the NBL has its best chance in a long time to gain mainstream traction.

Watched game on nbl.tv and glad they kept the service. Can't watch every game live due to work and other stuff. I really like the ability to watch replays and other games. I thought the nbl.tv picture quality had improved on my 2.6Mbps ADSL service, compared to last year. Maybe they are using better codecs like Netflix are.

Might watch Nine some time and think it is great for the NBL exposure to be on Nine. I also think it is a long game for the NBL'

Will never use Foxtel. The only thing it offers is sport and a crap digital model compared to newer offerings. If only Netflix did sport.

I think it's best that people watch replays on the 9Go site as opposed to the NBLTV app. It adds to their views and helps the cause. Plus they upload the games on the same day. I saw the overtime games that I missed from there.

That's assuming that the coverage fails to gather momentum, and channel nine do seem to be getting behind and cross promoting this in ways that other channels either didn't, or didn't have the capacity to. They've signed on for 3 years. If the league shows good signs or promise than there will be a long game but the league still needs to justify its worth to them.

It'll be interesting to see how long if we see more non NBL sponsor ads in the broadcasts.

I have heard that you won’t get a network deal until you sign up advertisers yourself in the modern tv landscape.

With Nines contacts and NBLs increasing contacts I think there's real opportunity to increase sponsors and tv advertising.

I don’t think a high paying TV deal is really a possibility given the gluttony of other sports getting $$$, but the NBL can focus on increasing market reach and therefore revenue.

The Perth model is one to emulate - competent front office, 10k average crowd, reasonable sponsorship and not contingent on NBL handout or TV money.

This year if the NBL can get a Sunday TV show on Nine plus some finals on Nine, that would go a long way

I appreciate that the bball is on 9GO, but at the same time I agree quality was low.

I'm undecided if I'll watch 9Go or watch NBL.TV on the iPad next time I'm watching a game that's broadcast.