While the AFL are fond of talking the talk when it comes to online rights, one Australian sporting code has finally stepped up to walk the walk. From this season, NBL.TV will show all NBL games live online and across a number of digital platforms.
For just $79 fans will be able to see every NBL game for the season on their PCs, mobiles and tablets, or through IPTV.
As a comparison, the AFL this season only offers coverage on some of these platforms – PCs are a no-go – and only to customers of Telstra.
Recently, chief executive Andrew Demetriou hinted that the league had met with NBN Co on a broadband-based product.
In the past, the boss has made no secret of his desire to one day start selling the AFL product directly to consumers.
But when the latest broadcast deal was finalised last year, the AFL went for the safe option and once again partnered with Telstra. The game’s digital offering was improved, but it was still well short of the standard set some time ago by various leagues in the United States.
As for the NRL, their new broadcast deal announced last week sent IPTV rights for five games to Foxtel, who will also develop a tablet product for the league.
However, it appears as though – much like the AFL with Telstra – only customers of a certain provider, in this case Fox, stand to benefit from the NRL deal.
As it stands, only certain platforms are covered too – mobile rights are yet to be sold.
Then in comes the NBL, who hasn’t been renowned as a pace-setter in Australian sport since the 90s.
Coming off a season where games were shown at ridiculous hours, you’d be forgiven for having low expectations when it comes to NBL coverage. However, Basketball Australia have managed to engineer a very decent package for both current fans and the casual sports fan.
The original broadcast deal with Network Ten was renegotiated. Firstly, this meant that one live game each Sunday will be shown on Ten and a separate game Friday nights on One on delay.
But another aspect to the new deal was that digital rights were transferred from Ten back to the league, who got to work on putting together NBL.TV.
Both these developments are equally important. Being on a primary free-to-air network is a huge advantage in terms of attracting viewers who wouldn’t normally watch basketball, or haven’t done so for years. It’s also a great way to capitalise on any momentum stemming from the London Olympics.
Meanwhile, having a market-leading product across a host of devices to cater for the purists is a great way to reward those who’ve stuck by the game. To some these devices won’t mean much, but for the cost of a HDMI cable fans can even put games on their TV if they choose.
Partially, the NBL is able to make this move because the likes of Telstra and Foxtel aren’t prepared to throw significant cash at them. That very obvious point has to be conceded.
However, this type of service is something that basketball fans – spoilt rotten by the magnificent NBA League Pass product – have been demanding.
Truthfully, a product of this nature is well overdue in the Australian market.
So while last week this column was forced to lament basketball completely missing out as some of the best sports administrators in the country went on the market, this week the tune is a bit different.
For once, basketball has got one up over their much larger rivals.
Now, the questions are about why, given how long leagues overseas have been doing this, have the AFL and NRL been so slow? Why are they not catering to fans who want to access the game on devices other than TV in the best and most comprehensive manner possible?
Why is it that a minor league in terms of our sporting landscape has been able to trump them?
Vic
Guest
The AFL already has the NBL arrangement through livesport.tv It is pretty cheap, but you need an overseas IP address and can watch through your PC and do catchup or live.
Nick Jungfer
Roar Guru
Great to see the NBL leading the way in online broadcasting. I'm usually optimistic about the NBL and basketball in Aus but still didnt expect we'd see this, especially so soon. The fact that broadcasts 5 cameras is great too. Pretty amazing that you can watch EVERY NBL & NBA game. Basketball sure is miles ahead of the likes of Rugby & AFL. Going to be a great season for hoops fans.
Junior
Roar Guru
Cool. Thanks mate.
Michael DiFabrizio
Expert
The deal is $3 million over 5 years, reportedly. There are three years to go in that deal, but the details (number of games, digital rights, etc) were renegotiated this past off season. Ten weren't making use of the digital rights, I assume they bought them to ensure there was no competition to their TV broadcast. The old deal was unsustainable on their end however, which is why they had to give up things like digital rights at the negotiation table.
Junior
Roar Guru
Do you know how much BA is receiving annually from Ten to broadcast the live Sunday game plus the 930 game on One? Also, how much did Ten pay for the digital rights last year? Is there any data on the number of subscribers to Ten's digital offering last year?
Michael DiFabrizio
Expert
Junior, I see what you're saying but what the NBL is doing *is* a complement to FTA coverage. They'll have a live game Sundays on Ten and a 9.30pm game on One this year. And yes, it actually was a decision to retain digital rights. Up until now Ten owned those rights but the NBL renogiated to get them back.
Bigicepete
Guest
This is great for the NBL and is the goal for the AIHL, Australia's national ice hockey league. Currently we have two teams streaming live for free, hopeful for all games covered like the NBL by 2014. If you want to see how good Aussie Ice Hockey is we have our finals on this weekend in Newcastle and you can watch online at http://www.livestream.com/aihl/ Semis are 3.30 & 7pm on Sat and Final is 4pm on Sunday. Again my congrats to the NBL. It's the smaller sports that are forced to innovate and I applaud them for taking on a difficult but rewarding technical challenge. Peter Lambert Assistant Commissioner - Australian Ice Hockey League http://theaihl.com
Junior
Roar Guru
I posted my view the other day in response to another article on this issue. It is copied below for those that missed it. ------ This appears to be a very positive spin on a fairly dire situation. The “All Games Live” headline, while strictly true, is also misleading. A “decision” to retain the digital rights? Bit like a person’s “decision” to breathe oxygen. Rather than being a sign of a forward-thinking operation, this digital-only model is only happening because BA can only get limited interest from the FTAs or Fox Sports to pay to broadcast basketball games. The TV execs are not mugs. If nobody is interested in the sport they will not pay for the sports’ rights. I seem to recall a few years ago BA (or the equivalent) offered to pay the FTA networks to broadcast their game and still got no takers. This sort of digital deal should be seen as a nice complement to an FTA deal, not a substitute.
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
I legally watch the A league online for $5 a month (I live overseas).
Michael DiFabrizio
Expert
Good question Nathan. Might be a good way for iiNet to score brownie points with fans.
doozel
Guest
Great news for all hoops and sports fans, the future of all sports coverage. Why pay for Fox when half the sport most people couldn't careless about? Web browsers in Tv's are becoming more common and will be standard in the years ahead. It is easy to hook your Pc up to your Tv in the mean time. NBA league pass is an amazing product. If this is half as good it will be well worth the money.
Pete
Guest
Good to see the new CEO is moving in the right direction!
The Cattery
Guest
Necessity is the mother of invention.
elo
Guest
That's the price during the off-season, the league pass prices are higher. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_League_Pass Prices in the 2009-2010 season were $149.95 for the Premium package and $99.95 for the Choice package. In 2010-2011, the prices rose 20% to $179.95 and $109.95 respectively as “early bird” rates for those who signed up before the season started, and $189.95 and $119.95 as the rates once the season began. For at least the past two years, the service has offered a free trial for the first games of the regular season. In the 2010-2011 season, trial customers could watch all non-blackout games from October 26 (the start of the regular season) through November 2. For the 2009-2010 season, a half-year package was offered at a reduced price beginning around the middle of the season. In 2010-2011, the Playoffs and Finals Premium and Standard packages were offered at $99.95 and $79.95 respectively. In 2011-2012, the Playoffs and Finals package was offered at $69.99.
Michael DiFabrizio
Expert
Jim, NBA League Pass is most definitely more than $5 a month. My guess is that it's an off-season product to access content like Summer League, etc. $79 is very good value for an entire season, although you do get a lot more games if you subscribe to the NBA.
jim_bar
Guest
whilst i applaud the NBL for this initiative; i do question the price. I just checked, NBA.TV costs $5 a month. i know which i'd rather watch
liquorbox_
Roar Rookie
The Rugby Championship is availiable live from a samsung rugby ap.
heart of sydney
Guest
That's why we have to have the NBN with fibre to the home/business and not Abbott's hamstrung version of fibre to the node (or up the road). The irony is that Abbotts's mouthpiece for this Howard era plan is Mal Turnbull who konws better since he invested big time recently in a French company that is rolling out fibre to home/business in France. of course the ALP have a lot to answer for for not biting the bullet in the 90s and insisting Telstra/Optus combine their resources to roll out a single first class digital network instead of two third rate analog ones past most homes.
Sean Fitz
Guest
I live overseas and had livenrl.tv for the first year it was offered. Although there were glitches, the quality was better than the blocky SD our cable provider broadcasts. Every game live though and my mates in Oz couldn't believe that NRL coverage in Bangkok was better than Sydney. This year however, the price of NRL TV went up to USD$99 and because the NRL gave the rights away to Setanta for Asia, the NRLlive.tv service was only able to show maximum 2 games a week but sometimes none. A complete waste of time and money. Because Setanta is first and foremost a Rugby channel and because of the extended S15 season, we did not see a whole lot of NRL via Satellite either. In all it feels as though we are going backwards as I enviously look at my US colleagues ability to see their sports live, online and in HD. Indians all over the world are subscribed to HD cricket content too. Expat Australians and Kiwis have poor options to view any of their sports online and are subject to stupid geo-blocking rules. The net result is we don't buy the service but would gladly hand over a decent chunk of change to see a well put together online delivery option but sadly that seems like it might be years away. Oh well we have been enjoying Premier League in HD every weekend and the kids have been busy buying Premier League merchandise and, thanks to no one in or near the NRL having any sort of vision, they will grow up knowing more about Arsenal and Liverpool than the Bulldogs or Rabbitohs.....
Boomshanka
Guest
In an open market, sports bodies should be able to sell to the highest bidder and not have to sell to the three commercial FTA networks which also enjoy protected status. Sure they can also sell to ABC or SBS but realistically the market for professional sport in Australia is the preserve of Seven, Nine and Ten. What the NBL has done here is what every sporting code should be able to do and sell its product direct to the consumer free of bastardisation. ie real consumer choice.