UK public service broadcaster the BBC has today (January 18) announced that it has secured a package of rights to provide free-to-air linear coverage of North American basketball’s NBA for the remainder of the season.

The broadcaster’s coverage will begin with tomorrow’s game between the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons taking place in Paris as part of the league’s annual regular season game in Europe.

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The game will be shown on the BBC3 channel and the iPlayer streaming platform.

Additionally, the BBC will broadcast four regular season games, two playoff games, one conference finals game, and one NBA Finals game, as well as select highlights and an end-of-season review show.

The Paris game will simultaneously be shown by pay-TV broadcaster Sky, which is the main NBA rightsholder in the UK. It will provide coverage on its Sky Sports Arena channel.

This season, Sky will air a total of 135 regular season games, the NBA All-Star Weekend, the playoffs, conference finals, and NBA Finals.

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Sky also offers free-to-air coverage, with the weekly primetime Sunday game shown on its Sky Sports YouTube channel. The NBA is also available in the UK through the League Pass streaming service.

The fixture between the Bulls and Pistons will take place at the Accor Arena and will be the league’s first game in Europe since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The game will also be shown free-to-air domestically by heavyweight French broadcaster Canal Plus and by pay-TV operator BeIN Sports, which holds rights to the league in France.

Image: Michael Reaves/Getty Images