FIBA, basketball’s international governing body, has sold broadcast rights for its flagship World Cup in over 190 countries.
The federation has secured extensive coverage of the tournament in all three of the host countries - the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia.
Through broadcast partner Cignal in the Philippines, OneSports is the primary home for the competition, while there is news and supporting coverage on TV5 and live games available via Smart's OTT service.
Meanwhile, public broadcast channel PTV4 is also carrying OneSports' broadcasts of the Philippines’ games.
In Japan, free-to-air (FTA) broadcasters Nippon TV and TV Asahi are sharing live coverage of the national team’s games through FIBA's rightsholder Dentsu, with global streaming service DAZN also having live coverage of the tournament.
Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the World Cup is available on a variety of services through rightsholder RCTI, including the FTA iNews channel.
In terms of other key Asian markets, all games will be shown in China by internet giant Tencent. There will also be several live games offered by state broadcaster CCTV. In addition, it was recently announced that Migu will stream live action on its digital platforms.
FIBA has also secured major broadcasters across many global territories including ESPN (USA, Australia, and Brazil), BeIN Sports (MENA and France), Sportklub (Balkans), Magenta (Germany), Sportsnet (Canada), DAZN (Italy), Nova (Greece), DirecTV (Latin America and Caribbean).
To ensure widespread coverage of this year’s World Cup, FIBA additionally agreed deals with several FTA channels including RTVE (Spain), France Televisions (France), TV3 (Lithuania and Latvia), RTS (Serbia), ERT (Greece), RAI (Italy), Nelonen (Finland), Sport TV (Slovenia), GPB (Georgia), LBC (Lebanon), and TVNZ (New Zealand).
In Africa, the matches featuring tournament debutants Cape Verde and South Sudan are being broadcast on RTC and MTN, respectively. Cote d'Ivoire games are being shown on RTI, while state broadcaster TPA will televise Angola's games. This all complements the coverage across sub-Saharan Africa on StarTimes.
In markets where broadcast deals haven’t been struck, the World Cup is being aired on FIBA's official streaming service, Courtside 1891. The platform features both live games and highlights packages.
North American basketball’s NBA recently agreed a deal with FIBA to carry Courtside 1891 and provide coverage in the US.
FIBA’s international media rights are distributed by FIBA Media, a joint venture with DAZN, in a deal spanning 2017 to 2033.
The World Cup began on Friday (August 25) and will conclude on September 10.
Meanwhile, the flagship international tournament set an attendance record on the opening day as 38,115 fans watched co-hosts the Philippines take on the Dominican Republic at the Philippine Arena.
The previous record for a World Cup game in an indoor arena dates back to the 1994 World Cup final in Toronto, Canada, when 32,616 spectators watched the US beat Russia at the SkyDome.
