“Are you serious?” That was my reaction last Thursday after seeing a tweet from the National Basketball League regarding the Grand Final. It was that night.
The battle between the two best teams in the competition, Perth and New Zealand, was largely unnoticed, particularly in the eastern states of Australia. And one thing is to blame.
When the season started back in October, things were looking up. The league was coming off its most successful season in a long time. Crowds were up, ratings were up since the move back to free-to-air, Patty Mills was back in town and for a while it looked like Andrew Bogut would come back too. It looked like basketball was making a resurgence.
Then, OneHD announced that instead of showing live coverage of the southern hemisphere’s premiere basketball league, it would show re-runs of M.A.S.H. and other shows that can be seen on 7mate.
They would offer two options to the league. They said they would either show three heavily delayed matches (sometimes as late as 1am AEST the next morning), or they would show one live match per round.
Both were unattractive offers, but ultimately the league would have to choose what they thought was best for the sponsors. Option one was chosen.
Since taking over Channel 10 in February last year, James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch have turned the network upside down. Funding was cut, and to be honest, it really doesn’t look like they’re in it for anything.
They changed One into a ‘blokes’ network. They also lost the rights to broadcast AFL and have decided not to telecast the Indian Premier League and the NBA.
To make it even worse, you could guarantee that whenever there was an NBL game in New Zealand, ONE would simulcast that match from the host broadcaster across the ditch, so that they wouldn’t have to send a crew, allowing them to cut costs.
This season, the NBL has gone down the community route rather than the corporate path and it is working. Crowds once again are on the up. But the key component is media coverage.
The major newspapers would be lucky to have a column a week on the NBL, while with the emergence of digital radio you would think that games might be able to get some airtime. However, this is not the case. And there is also next to no coverage in news bulletins.
Andrew Bogut has tweeted fans regularly asking for online streams of NBL matches. Channel 10 show the Formula One live online, why can’t they do it for the NBL?
The NBL obviously can’t back out on its television contract, but surely they can sit down and work out a better deal for next season.
The fans of Australian basketball deserve much better.
Chris
Guest
Probably both...
mushi
Roar Guru
Or it costs less
Chris
Guest
Not if there is more demand for cow riding than basketball...
Marc Howard
Guest
Some good news for fans today with the NBL renegotiating it's deal with TEN and now live games shown on both TEN and ONE next season. See link below for full story: http://www.nbl.com.au/news/article/2012/april/live-nbl-coverage-on-ten-next-season/
Mick
Guest
If ch 10, 1 or 11 can show cow riding at a decent time due to demand they can show the NBL.
mushi
Roar Guru
The fans of Australian Handball and the Sylvania Water Bridge League will likewise rise up with their oppressed brethren. It is actually up to the NBL to deliver to Ten, as Ten is the NBL’s customer. The obligations of Ten are to their shareholders not to the followers of a niche sports league. I love basketball but certainly don’t expect Ten’s shareholders to destroy their own wealth for me to be able to see it
Chris
Guest
"Channel 10 show the Formula One live online, why can’t they do it for the NBL?" It's quite simple - because the demand doesn't justify it. "The fans of Australian basketball deserve much better." Why? This is a nonsensical statement and applies to just about every sport. 'The fans of [insert the name of your favourite sport] deserve much better'. Television networks exist to make money for their owners. They do not, never have and never will, have the best interests of any sport in their thinking. The sooner people understand that the better.
Football United
Guest
You get what you ask for with FTA, I personally can't wait for the NBN to be finished so Internet TV sends them all broke. They promise you more exposure to new audiences but unless you are AFL they eventually just decide to treat you like shit and bury you till the middle of the night or sometimes not at all. I can Remember the 09/10 nbl season quite well because played a significant amount of live games on Fox Sports. Now it's basically non existent on my radar and it doesn't surprise me it is because of FTA. Football fans will never forget the treatment of the nsl by Seven and basketball would do well to go back to ex-gf fox sports begging to take it back.