Every time they issue ratings it seems to be "34K"

Figure could be legit or could be complete BS this is Murdoch we're talking about here.

Wouldn't surprise me in the least if they were under reporting the NBL's ratings figures to keep getting the rights for free, last thing Fox wants is to have to start paying for free content.

It's an OZTAM national ratings figure, rather than a Fox Sports figure. Could be BS though, it's based on massive extrapolation for a few ratings boxes around the country.

Well I watched it on nbl.tv as I dont have Fox so where does that factor in? FTA ratings if shown live are more important in my opinion as I would have watched it live on SBS if that was available.

Besides, With free streaming options available, TV ratings are headed for redundancy anyway. Especially Fox ratings.

Foxtel Bringing sport to the minority!

Retarding growth of Australian sporting programmes everywhere! Particularly (promoting) a waning interest in junior sport.

NBL's mantra of bringing basketball to more people is total bullshit.

I talk about sport a lot, to a lot of people and am constantly disappointed at the number of people I meet who know so little of Adelaide's 36ers and NBL generally. Most only have a vague knowledge from what they've picked up from free tv and radio news. This was not the case years back when there was plenty of free to air basketball!!!

Foxtel slowly diminishing sport!

I've seen posts that suggest that anyone who does not have Foxtel is not a genuine sport fan. The ultimate statement of selfish conceit.

Those who want to disagree, first ask yourself if you actually think that since you do have Foxtel and you are OK, are you selfishly not caring about anyone else!

Please LK you have done a great job in boosting the NBL, but it's long term future health will depend on a well timed healthy free to air coverage.

"Please LK you have done a great job in boosting the NBL, but it's long term future health will depend on a well timed healthy free to air coverage."

Yeah, I think LK never thought of that before champ. He's definitely not tried to get more coverage too, what with SBS doubling their games this year.

You can only do what you can do and you are hamstrung by the levels of interest that FTA has in the product - which is next to none.

The league currently has a deal for 3 FTA games per week, which is the most they've ever had.

Yeah but one of them is a replay on after midnight on friday.

But the point is valid. The FTA coverage is there and its been pretty good. Just need more promoting and advertising to get more attention. Would be good if SBS promoted the league, so people knew when to tune in. But you cant have everything. 2x live FTA games a week and 1 after midnight on ABC is probably about right. LK could have just been satisfied with Foxtel coverage only. So he's done well IMO.

The only other time there were three games a week none of them were live.

When did the NBL ever have 3 games on fta tv?

Was this across Australia, or just local broadcasts?

The only real improvement I could see in fta in the foreseeable future would be for local commercial tv to broadcast their local franchise's games.

When did the NBL ever have 3 games on fta tv?

2011/12, three games a week nationally on One at 10.30pm. Which was a six-hour delay over here in Perth most weeks.

The One deal was supposed to gradually increase from two live games in 2010/11 to all games live in 2014/15. The One decided not to be a sports channel anymore and found a loophole in the contract allowing them to delay games by up to three hours (although some were as late as 1-2am when the MotoGP was on).

Since One wanted nothing to do with the league and were facing an obligation to pay for the production of a steadily-increasing number of games, the NBL had leverage to get a live game on Ten and acquire the online rights - leading to the launch of NBL TV the next season - in exchange for Ten/One only being required to produce two games a week for the duration of the contract.

Rights

That's when I wasn’t watching or following basketball.

I’ve obviously fallen off the wagon since then.

I think back in the day we always used to get home from the games in time to to see the replay on ABC tv and while it is a long long time ago the general non member public had a much greater awareness of the NBL and who the Adelaide 36ers were and how they were going. It was easy to have social conversations with new friends who generally had a good awareness of the game even though they didn't attend.
This helped and encouraged youth development through a general public interest in the sport.

Enter Foxtel for a decade and to attempt such
conversations as were once easy it became common to find that many local people did not even know who the 36ers were.

Today NBL tv is great for those of us who are members and can't afford Fox but it doesn't engage the kids who will be the future of the game.

A very difficult issue for the NBL and the very reason LK has had to step in and revitalise the game is because when the game is only brought to the vast minority it gradually loses support and interest to all but the most active fans of the game.

I would like to see a gradual return to more and better timed FTA basketball and would really like to see my grandchildrens generation more interested. The school campaigns with player visits have been great but the interest is short lived and quickly forgotten by most because they can't relate it to what they see regularly.

It would be great if there was some Gov support for SBS or ABC to follow the lesser local games with a regular coverage. Great for the players, kids and SA generally.
(Thanks UseTaHoop)

They need to advertise NBL TV more. I've met die-hard basketball fans who weren't aware it existed, and it's not exactly expensive.

AyJay

You're welcome (dunno what I did though).

KR

How many sports channels does Foxtel have, including ESPN etc?

In the old fta days, General sports fans would only luck into 1-2 sports broadcasts at any time. Si if a casual sports fan wasn’t interested in the sport on at the same time as NBL, the temptation was there to watch bball. From there an interest could develop. Even each fta channel now sometimes has 2 sports broadcast on their channels (or 2 different tennis tournaments this year on one network).

Now Fox offers a plethora of choices for a smaller number of subscribers. If you watch Fox for sport, you’re probably going to find a game of your choice. Hence casual fans or those who tune in to see what’s on are less likely to go with any minor sport unless it’s a favourite of theirs.