The British Basketball league, the top tier basketball competition in the UK, has announced that NBC Sports Regional Networks, a collection of NBC-owned regional sports networks in the US, has acquired the US media rights for the league.
This means that the British basketball league will be shown on NBC owned regional networks in Chicago, Philadelphia and the San Francisco Bay area, via its NBC Sports Chicago, NBC Sports Philadelphia, and NBC Sports Bay Area networks respectively. San Francisco will also be serviced with games from NBC Sports California.
The NBC regional networks will select two games per week from the league, with one to be shown on Thursdays and one on Fridays.
The networks will also air other high-profile events from across the league’s season spanning both the men’s and women’s divisions, including the British Basketball League playoff finals, the finals of the British Basketball League Trophy in-season tournament, and the league’s All-Star games.
The league’s new magazine show Unbeatable is also part of the additional content surrounding the league to be picked up.
Aaron Radin, chief executive of the British Basketball League, stated: “Bringing the excitement of British basketball to fans across these regions gives us an opportunity to welcome new fans into our League and showcase our world-class talent – a number of whom hail from American colleges – to new audiences.
Radin continued: “As the CEO of the League and a former NBC Universal employee, I am incredibly proud of this partnership because I know the opportunities this gives our organization, and British basketball, to reach new fans.”
This announcement is the second US media rights tie-up the British Basketball League has secured in as many weeks.
Earlier in October, the league unveiled a tie-up with New England Sports Network (NESN) to broadcast its games in the US’ six New England states (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.)
The NESN deal, which will see the games broadcast on the NESN, NESN+, NESN National, and NESN 360 platforms, will also have the two-game per week Thursday/Friday broadcast schedule, as well as Unbeatable.
