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The NBL heads to commercial Free-to-Air.
The NBL have announced they'll have 2x games on FTA each week during the comeing season over the coming summer:
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/basketball/nbl-heads-to-nine-in-new-broadcast-deal-20180816-p4zxw5.html
I think this is great news in terms of getting more of my second favourite sport on TV, but there are some caveats that need to be realised as well. For example, the games will be on 9Go, a secondary channel. The games will be in the 3-5pm time-slot, so not exactly prime time. It's not clear if other games will be on Foxtel, or available via the NBL app, as it was previously.
However, I think the games will get the attention of some of the market because Andrew Bogut is playing, the quality of the league is good, and there are many Australian's playing in the NBA in America, helping to raise the overall profile of the sport here at home. It's clear the NBL will also try and use the same funding model it had previously with Foxtel, where the NBL pays for production costs, and then splits the revenue with Channel 9, which encourages both parties to work hard at promoting the game and driving up sponsorship.
Obviously some details still need to be worked out, but good news for the sport...
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The AFL in 4K Resolution
It was announced today that Foxtel has plans to show the AFL in 4K resolution next season:
https://www.smh.com.au/technology/foxtel-taking-the-fight-to-free-to-air-with-plans-for-4k-footy-20180816-p4zxre.html
As I posted about yesterday, it doesn't seem like 4K will be delivered via the internet, owing to the unreliable speeds the NBN provides in Australia (sigh).
However, the fact they are identifying this sport, ahead of any other winter codes, also makes me think that Foxtel believes the AFL audiences are especially passionate about their sport, and would be most likely to upgrade to 4K resolution because of it.
I also found out from this article that Foxtel will become an exclusively delivered satellite service in the future, as its cable network gets taken over for NBN delivery. Also, 4K on FTA is unliely anytime soon, due to the squeeze for spectrum. As a satellite service, as opposed to a terrestrial-based service like the FTA channels, clearly Foxtel doesn't have this problem.
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Goodbye Prime Video, Hello Amazon Prime.
I received an email from Prime Video the other day that I could upgrade to Amazon Prime, which would be cheaper and I still get to keep all the video content on Prime Video.
While I don't use this service a lot, I can't say no to a cheaper service with the other stuff that Amazon Prime offers, such as reading content, shopping benefits etc. Obviously I have misgivings about ultimately supporting a non-Australian service, but at the end of the day, the cheaper fees win out. I'm also hopeful that ultimately, Amazon will start showing sport content, so I will save a subscription fee later!
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