this is taken from Boti's Article last friday its not real in depth but shows we are up from pay tv.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/basketball/gaze-a-rose-amongst-the-thorns/story-e6frect3-1225969048458

"ARE the 36ers heading in the right direction?

Well, home attendances (to date) are 24,185 (up two per cent on last year) and NBL attendances are at 155,796, 12 per cent ahead of last year.

NBL TV viewers are at 1,485,010, up a reasonably substantial 1,284,528 on last year.

(What was that about the merits of pay-TV again there, Mr Burton?)

Unique online viewers are 362,871, up 122,522 on last year and page impressions are up by more than 1million compared to the same time last year.

It's all good, even if the club cannot understand the difference between "breaking a story' and "jumping the gun"."

I heard the average is somewhere just below the 50,000 mark a few weeks back but havent been able to verify that.

Could you explain - ' NBL TV viewers are 1,485,010
up a substantial 1,284,528 .'
I'm sorry. I don't understand/know what that means?
If you'd be so kind.

Camel, my understanding is that number means the total number of people that have tuned in all together. so say if 70,000 people watch one game, then the next game the exact same 70,000 watch a different game it therefore means 140,000 people have watched so far and so after 9 rounds its 1.4 million compared to that of 1.2 last year. So essentially its just double dipping on the figures as majority of the weeks its the same people watching. i think the number of people watching per game is a better representation.

hope that makes sense.

It is actually up from around 200,000 at this time last year which is remarkable, and would be an average of around 70,000 per game if that is average viewers. Of course, that could include NZ figures too, but either wat it really has been doing much better than expected.

It'd be doing even better if they showed the Sunday game live instead of 2 or 3 hours delayed.

Dont you get it live in Perth? All but two games have been live over this side of the continent.

Just for a second there, I thought they were irrational numbers.
The OneHD numbers are terrific.
Only 200,000 watched the first 9 rounds on Fox.
700% increase.
In retrospect , round 1 - A-League was beaten by the NBL, then we didn't hear anything for a while.
Pay TV will rot them , the same way.
I mean they are going to decay.
FTA is virtually turning things around.

FTA TV definitely helps Camel...I also think the NBA on One HD helps as well. NBL alongside the NBA seems to be working quite well.

Averages are incredibly misleading in this game. No one in TV talks averages except for the duration of a single program. So 600,000 viewers in the first 15 minutes, 550,000 in the second 15 minutes etc leads to an average for the program of.....

Trends and returned audiences are what matters to Australian broadcasters (and advertisers) and the trends are downwards which will have everyone concerned.

One HD continues to lag significantly behind the other digital offerings, with a five city channel share of .7. Even 7mate and Gem are scoring a 5 city score of 2+. The danger in this is that its content is more expensive to produce, when it does produce content such as the NBL. Interestingly, One HD is performing well in Adelaide scoring 1.3 but doing terribly in Sydney with .5. This is Oztam, which is only metropolitan audiences, but that is what everyone will be caring about.

I also reckon Fox would dispute heavily the 200,000 figure being quoted. Bit silly of the NBL to even mention last year (and Fox), seeing as they may be cap in hand back at Fox quicker than you or I can post a thread here in Hoops SA.

^ is that you Packer??

i wish....

dont we all.

although seriously regarding your post, Foxtel would be subject to the same averaging errors of overlapping viewers from previous telecasts wouldnt it? although i think its harder to deny FTA hasnt helped, and i know your not saying that.

to date FTA might have had some impact on NBL sponsorship, and looks like it has had no influence on club level sponsorship, but other factors have probably influenced crowds, which are reportedly around 10%, off a very low base.

HO, I am pretty sure Fox would have quoted it in negotiations with BA!

There are a number of things to consider with all this though. Firstly, it appears the NBL is rating strongly for ONE and they are happy with it. But that is contrasted by the fact that ONE isnt rating well.

The flipside of that is that Ten overall is very profitable with low expenditure and ONE is reported to also have made a small profit. The current management believes (publicly at the very least, but prob also privately given the money spent on rights) the ONE concept is a good one, and with changes to the FTA sports rules will be able to be used more effectively.

Of course, as HO pointed out, things can change quickly in this industry, and other digital channels are making more money than ONE, which would make change tempting if a management team started looking purely at short term profit, or if Ten's overall profitability was reduced.

Adding it all up the NBL is performing reasonably well (and much better than expected first up) and that holds it in good stead, especially when you consider it is effectively a new product on FTA. But it is certainly not a concrete position on FTA just yet.

And I agree HO, any flow on from FTA to crowds (which will occur to some extent given how many more people are watching it on TV) would not have happened to any great degree this early in the piece.

Out of interest, if you take Sydney out of the equation crowds of the 8 teams from last year are up around 7%, which is still very good and most likely a reflection of better promotion (some of which is ONE) and scheduling.

I don't have figures in front of me but I would say that Cairns, Wollongong and NZ are up, Gold Coast, Adelaide, Townsville and Perth are similar while Melbourne is down.

Paul, ten is profitable. Their result this year include a big write-in of some kind by virtue of a tax break - I think that was attributed to Nine's and Seven's result as well.

I heard that the ratings for NBL for ONE HD are not that good, and have tailed badly in recent weeks after a hyped start.

I will have a closer look at the crowd figures later but Perth seem down (last 3 crowds at 4k whereas last year consistently filled out at 4.5), Cairns conversely seem way up. Breakers crowds are largely invisible, Wollongong poor considering their success and Townsville in trouble. Sydney really have no benchmark, Adelaide no idea and Gold Coast seem pretty ho hum.

This may all sound half empty, but I am the ultimate realist. The predictions were that the advent of FTA and removal of wednesday nights would help, and my view is that the extended season must be better for promotion and therefore walk-ups.

That's the whole point HO, change those things and crowds increase, which they have by 7% without Sydney or 12% with them. The work now for the league and clubs is to maintain that and improve it, because the current level probably isnt sustainable in the long run.

HO, just year one back on FTA though. Won't mean instant results across the board. Haven't looked at the real numbers in detail but anecdotally (FWIW) a fair few non-basketball people mention to me that they saw some NBL the other night, etc. I think general sports fans are flicking channels and watching a bit more NBL than they did previously. Probably helps that the general standard of television is so abysmal.

I dont think you can really argue with the success so far. I think what HO is pointing out is that it isnt all rosey just yet because of a few respectable numbers. After so much bad news though I think it is fair to celebrate a bit of good news.

If Boti's numbers are correct then the NBL has been watched by almost 7 times as many people as this time last year, at an average of roughly 70,000 per game. If the numbers have dropped lately that isnt the best but it at lets the powers that be know that work still needs to be done, promoting the sport and in terms of the presentation of the broadcast.

Did some research HO and the word you have heard is correct - I shouldnt have doubted you! The early days really were solid figures but this is not a good sign at all.

They would've been a little excited after the round 1 ratings, expecting growth rather than going down.

I guarantee Perth crowds are down as they scheduled all these stupid Sunday afternoon games in a row. These provide no where near the excitement of a Saturday night game where you can kick off your Saturday night with a great Cats win and head on from there.

and there's the rub Perthie. If you want FTA, you have to schedule games when Tv can use them, and this season that is Friday's and Sunday's. In that context, Perth have an excellent schedule, if ONE HD takes advantage of it,.

I'm enjoying the OneHD NBL coverage. I either watch all games live or setup my TiVo to record them so I can watch them later.

Attendances at Kings games is a problem though - they're getting lower and lower ever week. Hopefully it's to do with the fact that the last 2 home games have been Sundays.

2 new imports should hopefully get some W's under the belt, however I think we need a new coach too. Moose is rubbish IMO.

He is certainly yet to prove himself. Their early form was reasonable though, so I am willing to reserve judgement on Moose until Sanders, Gilder and Dickel have had a few games in the team.