www.livenbl.tv has recently started but with geo-blocking in Australia and New Zealand. I can see this playing a large role next season.

Bigpond Sport on T-Box may also be interested in the IPTV space.

Fetch TV is iiNet's product and iiNet are a league sponsor so that might make sense.

Further quote from the press release:

"Just as importantly, we now have this terrific opportunity to talk to a range of potential suitors with an interest in broadcasting all remaining NBL games across multiple platforms. So much is changing in this space and this presents us with a very real opportunity to secure new partnerships that will see all NBL games broadcast on some form of platform, whether it be on TEN, pay television, IPTV, online or mobile."

A really good deal. Very happy with that. Having the rights to the rest of the games plus internet rights is huge.

Isaac, re: Friday night games. The original deal's number of games were games covered by Ten/ONE, not Sky NZ games, and the wording of the release suggests the same.

Agree re the showing of Breakers games!

I note the use of the wording subscription television = fox

Opens gates to have more games shown on fox which would be what the owners of Ten would want to see happen.

IINet would of course want to go down the fetch tv path

Does this give opportunities for local coverage too? The 36ers use broadcast quality equipment at games so it wouldn't be that big of a stretch to get games shown.

The WIN network also covers a number of teams as well so may be that door is ajar as well.

does anyone know how it works in the NBA. I always thought that the games were potentially on various channels depending on the participants.

I suggest you check netball's ratings in the Sunday timeslot on Ten. They have gone from 15-20K on ONE to 70-100K on Ten.

Getting the NBL live on one of the main FTA channels plus another game at a reasonable timeslot on ONE is a good result.

Any telecast is great and Sunday afternoon is a tough timeslot.

I believe one of the issues with Friday night LIVE games is that the Sixers are the only team who controls their stadium. Others have to negotiate with operators of Entertainment Centres to ensure Miley Cyrus or One Dimension don't have a booking.

I definitely hope now that Ten arent trying to either run the NBL out the door or back to the negotiating table that they show NZ games, even if late at night. That would allow 60+ games under this agreement. There are only 71 this season and all late at night.

I am actually surprised with what the NBL was able to get out of this deal. Sure we all want the NBL to be live every game, or shown at a decent timeslot but at the end of the day, TEN didn't have to show any faith in the league when renegotiating and could have continued to show games after 10:30pm.

While this is a step in the right direction for the league, I think there are still some drawbacks to the new deal.
As Isaac pointed out, we don't know that the Friday night game will be the one scheduled for that week (I am not confident that it will be the scheduled game running on a 1.5-2 hour delay), it could be a game from earlier in the week or a Breakers game, but as fans we need to hope that TEN does the right thing and shows the scheduled game on delay.

There is also no guarantee that we will see the Breakers home games - which have no production costs for TEN, I think all done by SKY Sports - which would be disappointing if it happens.
Last season we were able to see Breakers games on Thursday afternoon/evening (a timeslot that currently shows: Beach Patrol, IFISH, Hogan's Heroes, M*A*S*H, Get Smart and Cops).
I would like to think that showing live or delayed coverage of a Breakers game here would rate better than these shows.

Another issue which I see with the wording from this press release is the same as what BJF pointed out. The NBL reclaimed the rights to non-TEN produced games, with subscription TV being listed as one of the options.
Working on the assumption that the NBL will have the right to sell off/distribute the broadcast rights to non-TEN games, does this mean we will see other games exclusively on Fox, given their ability to offer big money for the broadcast option?

There is so much potential for this deal, most of it comes from the NBL holding the rights to non-TEN broadcast games. This opens up so many opportunities for local broadcasting, IPTV and even an online streaming service (similar to NBA League Pass).
Given that iiNet is the major sponsor of the NBL, you would hope they will be looking at this as an opportunity to develop a streaming service online or through FetchTV to broadcast all NBL games. The ability to increase their customer base, as well as increase profits through subscription services is surely one they wouldn't turn down.

Interesting sidenote that Ten/One have canned live coverage of the Formula One:

http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2012/04/fans-angry-as-one-bumps-formula-one-to-ten.html

Anon, I thought four games (even delayed) would've been nice too, but after this season where I barely watched delayed games (even when my brother was playing), I've changed my mind. I didn't record them and if I happened to be near a TV after having known the result, I still didn't bother watching.

With the live game (on Ten, not One), they'll get a bigger audience. But the crucial bit is the release of other games for the NBL to show in other ways. Might as well try to make the most of the deal rather than keep up a damaged deal that both sides would've disliked.

The other day in a TV thread, I said something about one live, one delayed, NZ games plus release of the rest for league/clubs to stream online or whatever else. I had heard nothing in advance and thought I would get shouted down by someone in the know for being far too optimistic. Quite surprised they managed to get anything in addition to the rights back for the rest.

As BJF says, the 36ers already film non-TV games to a very watchable standard.

Bring back Nino the commentator!

---

Edited after your later comment:

Must be great to be able to sign off on a contract knowing full well that if you change your mind the other party involved wont do squat to try and make you honour your side of the bargain.

Yeah, it is easy to start wishing for what we want rather than what's realistic. NRL and AFL struggle to get live games on main FTA channels outside their heartland, or even in their heartland until this year in the AFL's case.

Four games late at night wasnt going to help the NBL in the long run, and the subsequent ratings would ensure the NBL didnt get paid for its next TV contract.

At least now the NBL has three years to make it work so they are no longer seen as a ratings basketcase - which they have since 1995 - and expand their footprint in online broadcasting.

An insight into the Forman household? :)

There are huge questions to be asked and answered about the online opportunities.

- cost of production (and standard)
- free / pay per view / season pass
- rights

NBA Pass is a huge play, but they have broadcast quality production at every game anyway. The NBL will need to provide this, or a rights holder will need to, and that is not cheap.

Ten reportedly paid 800k per year for the rights and then spent 30k per game on production. How do you cover those sort of costs, or even a quarter of them, based on subscription/pay per view or online advertising models? Are the players in the IPTV market, be that Bigpond or Fetch or whoever, desperate enough for this sort of content to stump up for it?

Great work it appears by the NBL in getting this deal done - live on Ten on Sunday is a massive win.

A production company who did some work with an NBL club suggested a decent online product could be done for something like $5K per game, depending on the quality sought. Dont know if that costing still holds, it was a couple of years ago.

Will the Sunday game be live in Adelaide or just in the eastern states with us getting it 30 minutes delayed?

According to this article, talks have started with Fox Sports:

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/basketball/basketball-boost-as-local-games-return-to-freetoair-tv-20120418-1x6rb.html

I think the NBL needs to tell the referees to relax a little, not call absolutely everything and let things flow a bit more - that would translate into an easier product to watch.

The standard of players between here and Europe isn't that great but the free flowing style in Europe makes those games/leagues look that much better.

To everyone arguing against this deal - This is a good deal. We know One screwed us over with the original contract, so a compromise deal needed to be done. The result of the compromise is a good one.

Like it or not, Ten/One are a hell of a lot bigger than the NBL, so the NBL and its fans can complain as much as they want to (and fair enough too), but we were always going to lose - so to get 1 live game and one 9:30pm game next season is reasonable. Lets hope 10/One keep to this and dont alter the contract for worse over the next year or so.

Looking forward to seeing what the NBL can do with its reclaimed rights to Non Ten games.

I do not live in Australia.

But maybe people need to remember that this is FREE TO AIR coverage thats been talked about.

There is so many sports which have a bigger following than Basketball in Australia:
Soccer, NRL, AFL, Rugby Union

This deal is very good and people need to think about it in context.

God help us, our FTA Coverage in NZ shows NO live sport, let alone NBL games. Luckily, I have Sky.

only in Australia is getting basketball games live a "WOW" factor that people get excited about. elsewhere in the world it's almost a given haha! oh well if that's what we have to deal with...

Can anyone explain what this is?

http://www.livenbl.tv/

FIBA TV NBL-specific site for those who want to watch the games outside of Australia/NZ.

On Ozhoops an interesting point was raised, the NBL may end up fixturing Perth to a lot of Friday Night games.

ONE could broadcast games 6:30 PM Perth Games and show it live at 9:30PM EDT, while SA would only get a 30 minute delay.

why is this not on the nbl site?

i stand corrected- it is!

anon- not every country have such high rate for pay TV

Boti Nagy has suggested today in his column that Channel 7/9/SBS/Fox are all able to broadcast NBL games (not limited to paytv)

What do "live at 2:00PM nationally and live at 1:00PM nationally" mean. Does it mean 2pm/1pm in the time zone where the game is being played or 2pm/1pm AEDT?

That will affect which home teams get scheduled for these live games. If it's live at 2pm/1pm AEDT, then we wouldn't see any Perth home games on a Sunday.

Avv - are you serious about the refs relaxing and letting the play flow? More likely you'll just see the blood flow! The players do and will play the game to the refereeing. If the refs call even less of the contact that occurs than they currently do, players will just move to the new benchmark of permitted roughness. You will end up with just as many fouls called but many of them will be more severe. I can already watch WWE in a wrestling ring, I don't need to see it on a basketball court.

Avv, the game is reffed a lot more tightly in most if not all European competitions. Gill and Wilson have said the NBL allows the most contact of any comp they have played in, and between them you get NBA, Euroleague, Eurochallenge, Russia, VTB United, Germany and a couple more.

To quote Daniel Bryan, YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!