The National Basketball Association (NBA) will return to free-to-air (FTA) television in Australia through a new multi-year rights deal with the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).
Starting with the upcoming season, which gets underway on 23rd October, SBS will show two regular season NBA games each week on its SBS Viceland channel and on its SBS On Demand streaming platform.
The rights package also includes one live game per week from the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). That part of the deal, which begins with the 2020 campaign, includes both regular season matches and a selection of games from the first three rounds of the play-offs.
SBS will also make NBA games available on-demand, while its sport website will feature supporting content from North America’s preeminent basketball league.
The agreement further broadens the NBA’s reach in Australia, where pay-TV sports broadcaster ESPN has rights to the league’s games until 2025.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the NBA’s new deal with SBS marks the first time the league’s games have been on Australian FTA since 2011.
“We are excited to partner with SBS to bring NBA and WNBA games and programming to a nationwide audience on free-to-air television,” said Ramez Sheikh, head of global content and media distribution for NBA Asia.
“These partnerships show that fans in Australia have a growing demand for basketball content and beginning next season they will enjoy outstanding NBA and WNBA coverage on SBS across broadcast and digital.”
The news comes hot on the heels of SBS’s new two-year rights deal to become the exclusive FTA home in Australia of the National Basketball League (NBL), the top men’s basketball competition for teams in Australia and New Zealand.
The announcement also comes at a time when both the NBA and WNBA boast a number of Australian players in their ranks. According to an official release, 14 players from Australia were on NBA rosters during the 2018/19 season, while the opening night of the 2019 WNBA campaign featured eight players from Australia.
“The NBA and the WNBA are among the world’s most diverse leagues and basketball is an increasingly popular sport,” added SBS managing director James Taylor. “Building on our recently announced deal with the NBL, these partnerships with the NBA and the WNBA make SBS the exclusive free-to-air home of basketball in Australia and are a great opportunity to bring new audiences, particularly younger viewers, to SBS Viceland and SBS On Demand.”
The National Basketball Association (NBA) will return to free-to-air (FTA) television in Australia through a new multi-year rights deal with the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).
Starting with the upcoming season, which gets underway on 23rd October, SBS will show two regular season NBA games each week on its SBS Viceland channel and on its SBS On Demand streaming platform.
The rights package also includes one live game per week from the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). That part of the deal, which begins with the 2020 campaign, includes both regular season matches and a selection of games from the first three rounds of the play-offs.
SBS will also make NBA games available on-demand, while its sport website will feature supporting content from North America’s preeminent basketball league.
The agreement further broadens the NBA’s reach in Australia, where pay-TV sports broadcaster ESPN has rights to the league’s games until 2025.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the NBA’s new deal with SBS marks the first time the league’s games have been on Australian FTA since 2011.
“We are excited to partner with SBS to bring NBA and WNBA games and programming to a nationwide audience on free-to-air television,” said Ramez Sheikh, head of global content and media distribution for NBA Asia.
“These partnerships show that fans in Australia have a growing demand for basketball content and beginning next season they will enjoy outstanding NBA and WNBA coverage on SBS across broadcast and digital.”
The news comes hot on the heels of SBS’s new two-year rights deal to become the exclusive FTA home in Australia of the National Basketball League (NBL), the top men’s basketball competition for teams in Australia and New Zealand.
The announcement also comes at a time when both the NBA and WNBA boast a number of Australian players in their ranks. According to an official release, 14 players from Australia were on NBA rosters during the 2018/19 season, while the opening night of the 2019 WNBA campaign featured eight players from Australia.
“The NBA and the WNBA are among the world’s most diverse leagues and basketball is an increasingly popular sport,” added SBS managing director James Taylor. “Building on our recently announced deal with the NBL, these partnerships with the NBA and the WNBA make SBS the exclusive free-to-air home of basketball in Australia and are a great opportunity to bring new audiences, particularly younger viewers, to SBS Viceland and SBS On Demand.”
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