Basketball Australia signs landmark broadcast deal

A new landmark broadcast deal will see all NBL games shown live this season across multiple platforms.

In an Australian first, Basketball Australia has signed a landmark broadcast deal with PERFORM Media that will see all games of the iiNet National Basketball League Championship televised live and in full across multiple digital platforms. 

The multi-year partnership – effective from the start of the 2012/13 NBL season – provides basketball fans unprecedented coverage of the competition: 

- Every NBL game will be broadcast live via an NBL.TV subscription service for mobile, tablets, PCs and IPTV;

- Fans will be able to view television matches simulcast, plus all other NBL matches live anywhere and on any platform using a single login to NBL.TV;

- Games and highlights will be available on demand, giving fans the freedom to choose how and when they  watch the NBL;

- PERFORM will produce five-camera live broadcasts of all NBL games not being shown by the league’s free-to-air television partner Network Ten and New Zealand broadcast partner; and

- The deal also includes production and distribution of national team games hosted in Australia – meaning fans can for the first time digitally access any home games played by the Boomers and Opals, subject to television broadcast arrangements. 

Basketball Australia Chief Executive Officer Kristina Keneally said the new agreement would complement the NBL’s existing broadcast agreement with Network Ten – which will show one game live nationally every Sunday afternoon on TEN and one game per round at the regular timeslot of 9:30PM on Network Ten’s digital channel ONE.

“This is a landmark deal in Australian sport – the very first of its kind in our country,” Ms Keneally said.

“New media and digital broadcasting are already having a huge impact on the media landscape, and basketball fans rightly expect broad access to high-quality live programming in this space.

“This deal truly puts us ahead of the pack: basketball is the first sport in Australia to give fans such comprehensive digital access to live sports content on-the-go.

“This is also the first time in NBL history that every game will be broadcast and available live.

“More Australians than ever will now be able to see the NBL, with access to every game of the iiNet NBL Championship season live across multiple platforms on NBL.TV.

“The increased visibility the NBL will receive from Network Ten’s live game coverage coupled with PERFORM’s digital, mobile and online broadcasting will be a boon for our sport nation-wide.

“On top of that, NBL.TV will be a league-owned platform rather than one owned by a rights-holder – so the NBL will retain control of its own broadcast product and benefit directly from the revenue generated by it. It gives us a major new revenue stream, as well as an attractive new proposition for sponsors.”

Chris Mutimer, Managing Director of PERFORM Media Australia, said his company was excited by the opportunities the new partnership presented.

“The commercial opportunities around giving sports fans access to live sports content on-the-go are considerable, and it's a service that's already proved hugely popular in other countries,” Mr Mutimer said.

“We've already had a lot of interest from media buyers and other sports, due to the ability to target individual consumer groups.

"The deal also sees our international digital broadcast capability launching in Australia, and establishes a unique end-to-end solution for sports focused on driving new revenue streams.”

As per Basketball Australia’s standard policy, the commercial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The 2012/13 iiNet NBL Championship season tips-off on 5 October.  

Background Information

About NBL.TV

A full season pass with full access to all NBL.TV features will be priced at $79.  A monthly pass will also be available for $19. 

From today, Basketball Australia is also offering a pre-registration launch special for the full season pass – with fans able to pre-register to receive a special sign-up of offer of $59.

Fans can visit www.nbl.tv/earlyRegister to pre-register for a season pass now.

About PERFORM Australia

Perform Group plc is a public company on the London Stock Exchange and owns one of the largest portfolios of digital rights in the world. They have over 700 employees in 16 countries, and have offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland. PERFORM own leading sports websites Sportal.com.au, Goal.com and LIVESPORT.TV, and power digital platforms for the NRL, the FFA and the EPL live streaming service for Fox Sports.

PERFORM provides content in multiple formats to some of Australia and New Zealand's leading telcos, betting operators and media groups including TABSportsBet, Vodafone, Bigpond, Optus and SBS. PERFORM's digital advertising network reaches an average of one million Australian sports fans every month and includes the world's largest sports VOD network ePlayer, which syndicates sports news and highlights to over a thousand publisher websites around the world.