"It's a very big commitment on anyone's part to broadcast all of the games and that doesn't matter whether it's streamed or on television. With live streaming you can probably produce something for $20,000 a game but in my opinion that would produce something that was below par. We haven't made a decision on this yet and we have a board in place now so it's not just going to be myself making those calls and I don't know the right answer. My preference is to, if need be, produce less games but have a high standard for the ones we produce, rather than potentially broadcast every game in a lower quality. We need to start behaving as a non-compromising sport and produce only top quality products."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/basketball/nbl-boss-larry-kestelman-says-rebranding-is-key-for-new-tv-commercial-deals-20150727-gifpet.html#ixzz3hA1tkIcK

As a fan this puts me in a hard place. I want to watch all games - and don't care about production (to an extant e.g Wollongong are terrible with their cutting to baseline cameras during live play) - However I understand the need for the league to put out a polished product.

What will happen?

Blame Spenceley and whichever floor wiper used to be in charge of the Crocs for this mess.

They're working on the branding, presumably. The league as a whole put themselves in a tough position approving the LK plan so late.

I assume he had hoped for more progress by now. Isn't even hinting about being close now.

Worrying signs with Larry scrapping NBL.TV/no guarantee all games will be online as a minimum. The coverage is regressing. :(

Kestleman cannot be blamed for this. He has taken on a very big mess which will take longer than a single off season to clean.

I like the fact that he uncompromising about quality. NBL.TV was a stain on the league, and producing on that level was never going to get the job done.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were pretty sure about a Foxtel deal, but are holding out for FTA. We may have to accept the fact that FTA may not happen this season.

I am glad they are rebranding the league. That logo simply must go.

Foxtel swooping in channel ten makes things interesting too

I actually agree with what he says. He says he wants to show a high quality product and if he cannot make all of it high quality, then he wants to concentrate on the product that is high quality.

How can Marvin have it under control when two teams pulled the rug out from underneath everyone? People seem to conveniently forget this.

Id love some Live games during the week. Generally I get home from work at 6, so id miss any game starting before 8pm EST.

I have a feeling that we wont see a lot of Cairns/Townsville games on tv. Maybe limited Hawks ones too.

Wildcats games will be seen a lot simply for the fact they will be schedules around 6:30 in Perth and then that makes it perfect viewing time at 8:30 EST.

"I would be very surprised if we don't have a national broadcast rights deal, if not on free-to-air, then definitely on pay TV, and I would expect every game on TV," he said.

THat does seem pretty clear but to me it sounds a bit wish fufillment. He obviously thought whoever was involved in the negotiation after him would be able to close up the deal. Its possible the people on the other side backed off when they heard Kestleman was involved.

We really dont know. To me it seems like the NBL has been on the edge of a deal for years.

Hahahaha those quotes don't even come close to telling your side of the story, anon.

LOL to those having a crack at LK, if he didnt invest all that money where would the league be right now? His investment has bought a bit of excited back into the league. Have faith LK will deliver.

If we are having the same topics next year, then LK would have delivered.

If we arnt and are instead talking about the dodgy commentators we are listening to, then LK has delivered.

LK era:

- went from looking at 6 teams during the off-season, to 8
- many teams have recruited aggressively
- started an overdue rebrand

TV is where it was.

I'd also be happy with 2-3 games live/week. Whatever they can get.

I wouldn't say he's overdelivered, nor would I call it faltering. The solid recruiting by clubs is really positive after such a dismal off-season.

In the time since he came into power, it's bloody hard to have a TV deal done... it's a matter of trying to make the best from the situation.

No point having a go at him. This is a tough sell - as we have seen.

Good point. You can't make the schedule more TV (or streaming) friendly with midweek games, then not have either of those systems in place.

Im in full Isaac, LK has been on a steady road towards a positive future. The increase in talent not just from the normal big gun teams is a very good sign! Give him some time and at least wait till he falters on something to jump on him, patience is the key.

Something I will add, is it doesn't make sense to have games during the week this season if you are not sure that every game will be broadcast.

This means there will be games each week that virtually no one sees in person, and no one sees on TV. So for those games, there is no way around it, you will be running at a loss to even put the players on the court.

He might want to reconsider this until he has the right deal.

So don't judge LK too soon (fair call) but give him full credit for teams signing/re-signing players that have already been playing in the league in the last two years? Ok.

Well I'm sure he has installed the stability clubs have feared wasnt there.... with comfort levels going up so does spending.

I've said enough of the Hawks situation but I believe they had the confidence and ability to spend big last season too. they just chose not to, for a few reasons.

'The LK era is off to a very shaky start.
The mood seems to have gone from optimistic to pessimistic in quite a hurry. Did this guy really do any homework before plunging into this or was it just a "She'll be right mate. I'm a successful business man you know!" leap of faith?'

Unfortunately this great sport has dickheads like this who do a lot of saying but do no doing!

Go LK - at least your not sitting back back whining & doing nothing!!! Be part of the solution & not part of the problem...

Sorry #637 I forgot Spencely only became a multimillionaire only three weeks ago.

@ Matthew your forgetting mate that W.A. Doesn't have day light savings so a 6:30pm tip off is still 9:30pm AEST

I think regardless of who is showing games that Australians should be able to get coverage of NZ games even if it is just the state of the team they are playing but I think Sky NZ is a commodity that needs to be utilised and shown to us all.

I don't Shit on NBL.tv, it's allowed me to watch every game of the past 2 seasons and even watching Wildcats home games after I attended them so I would be devastated to see it go but I hope NBL.tv could be available in areas that have the set standard and once other venues get to that standard then all games can be shown and if that happened say start of 2016 then I wouldn't mind too much but we have so much talent so let us watch them

I still think 7mate is the way to go

NBL.Tv had its faults, it wasn't perfect but it did allow us to watch every game live/on demand. It would be massive loss if we can't get it this year with all the talent in the league. IMO didn't have an issue with the amount of games covered on TV last year because we had nbl.tv

1 Game Wednesday Night
1 Game Friday Night
1 Game Sunday Arvo
Plus all games on NBL.TV. We shouldn't be complaining considering a few years ago we could only watch 1/2 games a week on delayed coverage.

FTA would be better then Foxtel as not everyone has foxtel and it can reach to a greater audience

Nice troll #692.

#692 just read the first two words of the thread title and decided that this was the thread for him.

Something I will add, is it doesn't make sense to have games during the week this season if you are not sure that every game will be broadcast.

Proud: Damn! Forgot all about daylight savings. Well thats a pain. Will have to set the recorder up to record the games.

I'd hate to see Perth vs Melbourne games every week, when NBL TV is gone.

I like how we are now referring to this as the "LK era". As a WWE fan it's just kinda cool.

NBL.TV was horrible - but it had a low subscriber base of diehards. The product was crap, but at very least we saw every game.

I don't know how I will go from watching all my teams away games to maybe none at all.

"Marvin oversaw the former situation and was instrumental in blocking the planned expansion."

Marvin was Chairman. That doesn't mean he runs the show. There were four other Board members.

In any case, how he is he or the rest of the Board responsible for two clubs running themselves in to the ground when he was actively assisting them to improve, including "loaning" them money?

Instrumental in blocking the expansion? According to whom?

"LK Era" reminds me too much of that dark period of the Wildcats when Luke Kendall played for us.
Too soon. I was just starting to put that behind me. It's still too raw for me. :p

If you think TV wants a particular product, you don't only create it when they want it, you create it regardless and keep working towards that.

"Part of a Boards job is to oversee the running and financial viability of all clubs. In this case they sat back and for several years oversaw 3 clubs near extinction."

See, if you're going to call it "sat back" when that isn't the case, then you're not making a genuine point.

Do you not think the clubs have to take any responsibility for their own short-comings?

No, I won't go and research it. You're telling the story, you provide the evidence. And if its just a link to Boti's blog, don't bother.

I'm with those that are getting worried that if there are mid-week games but no tv deal in place to air them, that will be a significant knock, as that's the main purpose in doing them as teams will be taking a big hit in attendance...

"There is every chance that at least one of those clubs was trading whilst insolvent as well."

Which club? Name them. Lets discuss what they did wrong and who is responsible.

Every time a club goes bust, all the fingers get pointed at whoever is running the league at the time, while no one wants to hold the guys running the team responsible. Look at Gold Coast. Spent money like it was going out of fashion, on completely unnecessary things, could not attract crowds, spending became unsustainable, blamed the league. Pathetic.

The most likely scenario is Fox Sports for atleast the first season. I certainly hope Fox will screen every game, or there will be many games in the NBL next season which simply lose money.

LK Can't be blamed for whats happening. He is trying to turn a piece of steaming shit into roast chicken and people are surprised that he can't do it instantly.

"Look at Gold Coast. Spent money like it was going out of fashion, on completely unnecessary things, could not attract crowds, spending became unsustainable, blamed the league. Pathetic."

I think there's some selective memory going on there. All the talk about their demise was about the Tomlinsons.

Of course, anyone looking big picture knows the NBL has never provided the platform required for a large number of clubs to be successful as other top pro leagues in this country, and others, do.

If the AFL had provided the same platform over the past decade as the NBL it would look very different today.

Not from the Tomlinson camp, or the Blaze fans.

Well of course the Tomlinson camp said that, hardly surprising.

Why? As long as you make sure it's known that you're wanting to move to weeknight games when there is TV, what difference does it make whether or not you actually do it beforehand?

I get why they want to commit to doing live streaming right before relaunching but aside from the technical issues, it wouldn't take a lot to improve on some of the schlock served up in the past couple of years.

I thought NBL TV was ok. There were a few quality issues but I certainly be happy to pay for it again. I would rather watch all games on NBL TV with average quality then nothing.

Got to stop thinking what the diehards want and start thinking what the overall market wants. IF midweek games are what its takes to get people who wouldnt usually watch, watch, then its a success. NBL can compete with all the boring music and food vote em off shows not to mention the spelling bee shite... and why? Because Aussies LOVE their sport, we always choose sport over anything. The whole idea of the diehard base is it will watch whenever it is on, so as much as midweek may suck, it could be for the best.

"The most important next step will be playing in Asia where the real money is. Do you wonder why MU are in China at the moment?"

The Tigers toured China for years and this started a long time ago. What is your point?

"LK will be far more interested in the billions watching from China than any of this. domestic stuff".

Almost all of the Chinese pro teams except Bayi which is an army team (ie backed by the Government) are supported by wealthy corporations as far as I know. Games (the ones I have been to anyway)are poorly attended and while the TV audience is probably quite large compared to Australia in total numbers due to the population base it is not that popular relative to the other crap on TV there.

I really doubt that many of the teams make money.

In fact I have never seen a local watching basketball on TV unless they give me the remote and I channel surf to find it.

I think we need to find a way for our league to stand on it's own and the only way to get a little foot hold in Asia would be some kind of Asian Champions cup but to do so would be difficult due to variations in seasons.