The National Basketball Association (NBA), the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), a national free-to-air broadcaster in Australia, today announced a multiyear partnership to broadcast live NBA and WNBA games to a nationwide audience.
Beginning with the 2019-20 NBA season, SBS will broadcast two live, regular-season NBA games per week in HD on its SBS VICELAND channel and on its streaming platform SBS On Demand. NBA games will also be available on-demand on SBS On Demand and additional NBA content will be featured on SBS’s sport website. 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.
“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).
Fans in Australia can purchase authentic NBA merchandise through NBAStore.com.au, the official online NBA Store in Australia, and for the WNBA through WNBAStore.com. For all things NBA, visit www.sportingnews.com/au/nba and follow the NBA on Facebook and Twitter.
