• ESPN to televise more than 200 NBA regular season and playoff games each year in Australia and New Zealand
The National Basketball Association (NBA) and ESPN have announced an expansion of their existing broadcast partnership in Australia and New Zealand that will deliver a record number of live NBA games and programming to fans in Australia and New Zealand. The NBA and ESPN began their partnership in Australia and New Zealand during the 1990-91 NBA season.
Under the expanded agreement, ESPN will televise more than 200 regular-season and playoff games each year, including a minimum of five, live regular-season games each week, NBA All-Star, the NBA Playoffs and The Finals. ESPN will also televise the NBA Summer League, and NBA studio shows including NBA Countdown, NBA Tonight, and The Jump.
Additionally, ESPN will provide NBA content on digital and mobile platforms to ensure fans remain up to date on everything NBA. ESPN.com will continue to serve Australian NBA fans with in-depth game-around-the-game coverage, including extensive video reports and interviews, while WatchESPN will offer live streaming of games.
“The NBA is one of the world’s most popular leagues, so we are thrilled to announce that ESPN’s coverage of the 2016-17 season will be bigger and better than ever,” said ESPN Australia/New Zealand general manager Haydn Arndt.
“NBA fans have asked for more games, and we are excited to be able to deliver our biggest package in ESPN ANZ history. There are eight Australian-born players in the NBA whose stories we will showcase as we follow these Aussies in action. The multimedia combination of our TV, digital and social platforms will give fans more access to the NBA than ever beginning next season.”
“Expanding our broadcast partnership with ESPN in Australia and New Zealand is part of our continued commitment to delivering live games, programming and localized content to our fans,” said NBA Asia managing director Scott Levy. “With this new agreement, our passionate fans will be able to enjoy more NBA content than ever before through ESPN and its digital platforms.”
Under the expanded agreement, ESPN will televise:
• Up to 188 regular-season games, up from 88 in 2015-16, including five Christmas Day games (Boxing Day in Australia)
• Up to 53 playoff games, up from 45 games in 2015-16, including the entirety of the Eastern and Western Conference Finals and every game of the NBA Finals
• NBA All-Star, including the BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge, State Farm All-Star Saturday Night and the NBA All-Star Game
• 20 NBA Summer League games
There were a record-tying eight Australians on 2015-16 opening night NBA rosters: Cameron Bairstow (Chicago Bulls), Aron Baynes (Detroit Pistons), Andrew Bogut (Golden State Warriors), Matthew Dellavedova (Cleveland Cavaliers), Dante Exum (Utah Jazz), Joe Ingles (Utah Jazz), Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Patty Mills (San Antonio Spurs). New Zealand features one NBA player in Steven Adams (Oklahoma City Thunder).
ESPN’s coverage of the NBA continues with Game 1 of the NBA Finals, which will be televised live on Friday, 3 June at 11am Australian Eastern Standard Time.