New Zealand's NBL to broadcast live games on TikTok - SportsPro
New Zealand’s National Basketball League (NBL) and Sky Sport will live stream Wednesday night matchups from the competition on the broadcaster’s TikTok channel.
The NBL claim its TikTok live stream plan is a “world-first” initiative and sees the move as a way to grow interest in the league, especially among younger fans.
The league is also streaming all of its matches internationally via the International Basketball Federation’s (Fiba) YouTube channel, while it also has a US broadcast rights deal with ESPN. Sky, the NBL’s domestic broadcast partner, will show Sunday afternoon games on its free-to-air channel Sky Open.
It follows an experiment by US pay-TV broadcaster Fox Sports, which produced a feed focused on Caitlin Clark during several of Iowa’s college basketball games on TikTok. It said the ‘Caitlin Cam’ generated more than 800,000 views during Iowa’s win over Maryland, without disclosing how long viewers tuned in to the feed.
Comment:“On a weekly basis, basketball is New Zealand’s leading consumer sport for those aged under 35 years old, the game’s popularity is quite staggering,” said Justin Nelson, head of commercial and fandom at Sky New Zealand.
“The move to broadcast games on Sky’s TikTok platform will help further extend our coverage to the younger demographic, which is exactly where we want to be with basketball.”
“Excitingly, for our current partners, plus those who are starting to look at basketball as an innovative leader in the entertainment space, the coverage on TikTok enhances the opportunity to commercially connect with basketball’s new and diverse audiences.”
” TikTok is one on Aotearoa’s most popular social platforms, particularly when it comes to younger fans who are still developing relationships with the sport of basketball,” added Maree Taylor, general manager of leagues at Basketball New Zealand (BBNZ).
“By partnering with Sky Sport in this exciting new space we can bring the game to where our fans are, making it that much easier for fans all across the nation to catch high level basketball in one of the most closely contested competitions in the country’s sporting landscape.”
Coming next:The season-opening game between the Canterbury Rams and Nelson Giants on 27th March will be the first to be shown by Sky on its TikTok channel.
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