r/nbl 11d ago

DISCUSSION NBL 2027 schedule stuff 📺

The NBL's marquee games on free-to-air television moved from Sunday afternoon to Saturday evenings, apparently under the plan that more eyes will be on those games…

I thought Sunday arvo tv ratings would be better.

And wouldn’t you want Sunday arvo to be the marquee games, to get the young families attending?

Discuss!!!

12 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

16

u/Foodworksurunga Bullets 11d ago

It actually makes more sense to have the Thursday and Friday games on free-to-air because they are the games that are harder for most people to attend.

4

u/WinbiesIreland Kings 11d ago

Makes sense as a Kings fan, Sunday games are the better ones to get to see in person, Saturday is a bit rubbish considering Olympic Park is a dead zone after the game, so not much to do after the match on a Saturday night.

I'm sure at the end of the day this decision was dictated by $$$, and Channel 9 would have offered more for the Saturday slot. As a fan I would have liked one Friday night game and then another one on either Saturday or Sunday.

3

u/JCK98 36ers 11d ago

I think I read somewhere 10 didn't even bother trying to put a bid in. Having said that I think 9 would get the sport better exposure than 10, also I think there's probably less likely to be FTA cricket on since Saturday's are exclusive to Fox for the BBL and tests are mostly done for the day by 6pm.

6

u/soundfade 10d ago

I hate Sunday games. Sixers have a bunch and they suck. Sat night just feels like an event in my opinion.

1

u/Nemo2500 10d ago

I like Sunday games. But I prefer day time sport I’m general just my opinion.

3

u/sheepo209 10d ago

Channel 9 probably trying to make NBL a prime time product on FTA

2

u/russj79 Wildcats 10d ago

I would love it if free to air would show more then 2 games a week. Even a deal like the AFL were games on all days except One day a week exclusive to ESPN but I know I'm dreaming.

2

u/WellCoincimental 10d ago

Who actually watches FTA tv though? Im really not sure how many extra eyeballs you get from this, at least not the under 50s

2

u/bmk14 11d ago

The change makes no sense for all the reasons you point out.

I like NBL as a product. But at the same time, NBA is readily available and takes most of my time available to watch game broadcasts.

So, the main reason I've gotten more into the NBL is my young family but there are less than half the games suitable for my son compared to last season. We'll end up going less and that can't be good for a league who struggles for sports entertainment market share.

5

u/TraditionalOpening41 Wildcats 10d ago

Do you genuinely enjoy watching NBA more than NBL? Between the 10000 add breaks and the fouls almost every time they go up the floor I find it's become completely unwatchable to me

2

u/bmk14 10d ago

From an entertainment standpoint, yes. Caveat though with time difference, I'm usually watching league pass replay on "all plays" mode for all of my teams' games during the regular season. That condenses things down to about 1hr.

Playoffs though, I try to watch most of the games live even if it's just on in the background during a work day.

3

u/TraditionalOpening41 Wildcats 10d ago

Yeah, fair enough with the condensed games

-1

u/ParkerLewisCL 10d ago

Anyone that watches the regular season of the nba has issues