It might be well advanced but nothing can be finalised until they know how many teams are going to be in the competition.

Might be well advanced but also doesn't mean it's a decent deal

I doubt it is well advanced, calling bullshit given 25% of the league disappeared in a black hole, what TV exec would continue on with fixed programming and commercial terms on that basis

given recent events my bet is the will come out with a wonderful self produced content model and attempt to sell it per game to TV or Pay TV.

Does a potential TV station really care that Townsville aren't in the league? Its not like they were considered for home games at all in the past few years.

Yes, I agree that a TV deal would be somewhat independent of the Townsville situation, but perhaps wrapped up in the Brisbane situation.

Also agree with anonymous that this could just be self-produced and on one of the dorky channels, but I think the league has to service the committed fans first and build on that. What they have now doesn't even work for dedicated fans. Downside is potentially no revenue from TV, but so be it.

Hopefully it's only short term if it's on a smaller network

They showed a bucket load of Wollongong games though! But I agree with your point.

Don't worry, NBL wont be on Channel 10 anymore anyway :)

you're missing the point, it's not Wollongong or Townsville coverage , TV doesn't care about them but the fact the league can't keep teams alive is the issue for a TV deal.

if you're a TV exec,

* are you paying for 224 games (8 teams) or 120 games for 6 teams
* what happens if that turns into 5 teams and you've scheduled it
* what happens if it turns into zero games as the NBL implodes

It also has to do with brand, do you as a TV station what to be associated (and pay) for a sport that has clubs folding all over the place

maybe you do but I bet you are re-thinking how much you pay for it.

I'd put money on the NBL having a self produced mickey mouse TV deal, no sponsor and making a big loss

For the record, Townsville did not have one single regular season home game in 2014-15 broadcast on Ten/One. In fact other than the Breakers (who were on Sky NZ instead) they were the only team that suffered that fate. Makes it hard to sell things like courtside sponsorship when the league's broadcast partner totally ignores them and that means much less money for the club.

Is there a possibility that an eight team comp might actually be more attractive to a TV network?

Removing two teams could actually make the overall talent level stronger. With less jobs available maybe the overall depth of the eight teams could be improved.

I personally don't think the TV networks really care that much about where the teams are located. What they want is a quality product that viewers want to watch. If a Crocs vs Hawks game in Townsville is a high quality contest that people want to watch on TV then surely the broadcaster would be happy to show it.

At the end of the day, all they care about is ratings. The only way they'll get ratings is by the NBL putting out a quality product that fans want to watch. Having a strong eight team comp could be the answer.

Sorry, I meant six teams, not eight.

PJ, I think TV would favour only capital cities. If it's Perth vs Sydney, you have two big cities plus peripheral NBL fans watching. If it's Sydney vs Townsville, you have a capital plus a town a 30th the size of Sydney, plus random NBL fans.

But on the other side of the coin, if you take that to the nth degree and just have Sydney playing Melbourne every week, you get fan fatigue setting in from seeing the same contest all the time.
For me personally, that would definitely be a factor and is one of the main reasons I really don't want the number of teams dropping below 8.
If fans lose interest then that's a negative for tv as well.

For sure. One struggle I have with Townsville is that I don't really know what their team 'identity' is. Perth and Cairns have been those dogged defensive grinding teams, Adelaide run and gun, Wollongong play a strict team game looking for open threes or inside scores, etc. Been a few years since I felt like Townsville had a style.

The NBA has loads of teams, but a lot of them are known for something, even if it's just about following the progress of a player or core group (say Greek Freak in Milwaukee or Wiggins/Rubio/etc in Minnesota).

Hopefully not too late to build on the cult of Blanchfield.

As a squad Townsville were my favourite this past season and if I had written on paper what I wanted in terms of players bringing a certain something then that is Townsville.

I understand your questioning of what Townsville are because let's face it they are 10 individuals that bring a little something each and the result can be flogging Perth and Wollongong or winning back to back games basically all season long.

I feel if you can keep atleast the core together again for another season and hopefully the young side can develop further and a healthy Markovic and they could be just as scary to play as any