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SBS announces multi-year deal with NBA, WNBA.

SBS VICELAND to screen 2 Live, regular-season NBA games plus 1 live WNBA game per week.

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SBS has today announced a multiyear partnership with the National Basketball Association and the Women’s National Basketball Association to return Live games to Free to Air.

Beginning with the 2019-20 season, SBS VICELAND  will broadcast two live, regular-season NBA games per week in HD, and via SBS On Demand.

SBS will also broadcast one live WNBA game per week beginning with the 2020 season on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand throughout the WNBA regular season and a selection of games from the first three rounds of the WNBA Playoffs.

NBA games will also be available on-demand on SBS On Demand and additional content will be featured on SBS’ sport website.

Not included in the deal are finals and playoffs, which remain with ESPN.

“Premium international sports continue to be a focus of SBS’s offering and we are thrilled to partner with the NBA and the WNBA to bring Live coverage back to Australians for free,” said SBS Managing Director, James Taylor. “The NBA and the WNBA are among the world’s most diverse leagues and basketball is an increasingly popular sport. 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.”

“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, NBA Asia Head of Global Content and Media Distribution. “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.”

Fourteen players from Australia were on NBA rosters during the 2018-19 season, including: Deng Adel, Aron Baynes, Andrew Bogut, Jonah Bolden, Ryan Broekhoff, Mitch Creek, Matthew Dellavedova, Dante Exum, Isaac Humphries, Joe Ingles, Kyrie Irving, Thon Maker, Patty Mills and Ben Simmons.

The 2019 WNBA season featured eight players from Australia on opening-night rosters, including: Rebecca Allen (New York Liberty), Liz Cambage (Las Vegas Aces), Kelsey Griffin (Minnesota Lynx), Ezi Magbegor (Seattle Storm), Leilani Mitchell (Phoenix Mercury), Alanna Smith (Phoenix Mercury), Steph Talbot (Phoenix Mercury) and Sami Whitcomb (Seattle Storm).

5 Responses

    1. Me too. Network TEN at the time acquired the rights to the TNT NBA games. they would air on Thursday Mornings/Afternoons and Friday mornings afternoons and later replayed at night. they also had limited Finals and playoff games too. This anouncement is still great even though it doesnt include playoffs or finals. It would be great if SBS got some euro league games too.

  2. What sort of games? The NBA is an endurance event, packed full of games that don’t matter. Teams often try all out in the 3rd quarter, then give up if they don’t get a lead to save their energy for the next game. It’s only the tough playoff games where you see good basketball, and you need to have access to them all to catch the good games.

  4. Good news for fans without ESPN or NBA League Pass and casual fans of the game.

    A photo of Patty Mills in a Spurs jersey or Jingles in a Jazz jersey would be more appropriate than a team USA photo.

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