Super League Basketball: Sustainability and consistency in focus as new league shares broadcast plans By Jo Ruddock
Friday, October 4, 2024 - 10:08
Print This Story
Following the demise of the British Basketball League (BBL) in the summer, the all-new Super League Basketball (SLB) tipped off last week (27 September) with the aim of being a more sustainable league that will help the sport to develop in the UK.
Nine clubs are competing in the inaugural season - the Bristol Flyers, Caledonia Gladiators, Cheshire Phoenix, Leicester Riders, London Lions, Manchester Basketball, Newcastle Eagles, Sheffield Sharks, and the Surrey 89ers - which culminates in the Play-offs in May next year. These clubs wholly own the league and, after the BBL, whose largest shareholder was an external investor, had its licence terminated over concerns around its financial position, the focus is very much on ensuring they are financially stable and able to help grow the sport.
Speaking ahead of the first Trophy games on Friday 27 September, Lisa Knights, CEO, Bristol Flyers, explains: At the end of the day, an elite pro league is nothing without the clubs and if you don't have a licence to play, then you can't do your business. That was the starting point for the league, and what I've been most impressed by and what I've witnessed since I've been part of SLB, is how united all the clubs are. They all came together and said, right, how do we work?'
The BBL's licence was revoked at the conclusion of last season, meaning clubs had a matter of weeks to form a new league to be ready in time for a September start.
We officially started the league when we won the interim licence from the British Basketball Federation, and [BBF chair] Chris Grant did a sterling job in terms of making that decision; he acted swiftly and always said that without the clubs there is no league. The fact that all the clubs pulled together emphasised that. I think his main driver was, there's X number of weeks before the start of a season, and clubs are going to need time to get a new season up and running. So the starting point was winning the interim licence and then the next thing was right, what are we going to call ourselves' and Super League Basketball came about. We launched the logo, and everyone seemed to like it. It is a new dawn, a new era, and the choice and the colourways reflect that.
From commercial partnerships and fixtures to new club ownerships and production planning, there's been a lot to work though for the SLB team in the past few months.
Knights adds: One of the things that everyone was keen on was growing a financially sustainable league and what has been really interesting is the new ownerships that have come into the league as well. There have been some big changes with teams like Sheffield, Cheshire, Manchester and London all having new ownership. Three of those with US principal owners, and London with European, all coming from very credible, strong and sustainably financial backgrounds. It's been great for the new league to have this kind of investment into clubs and have them sit alongside the likes of the Lansdown family [who own Bristol Flyers], and the Timoney's at Caledonia Gladiators - both of whom were, prior to that, the most significant investors into the professional league.
We wanted to deliver a consistent level of good coverage, but to also do it in a sustainable way, because we all know broadcast isn't cheap. Being able to announce DAZN as our partner was a massive part of that
In terms of partnerships, the big news recently was DAZN acquiring exclusive global broadcasting rights to the league, meaning all men's games will be aired for free to audiences worldwide. In total more than 200 games across the Trophy, League, Cup and Play-offs will be broadcast live.
The broadcast deal that we've done is important because sitting on DAZN you've got the American audience, because they've got the NFL rights, they've got the boxing rights, that's great, but we've signed just as France's National Basketball League (LNB) lite announced that it is also partnering with DAZN. So you've got the Italian and the French elite men's basketball leagues, plus DAZN being the home of FIBA live streaming with its Courtside 1891 offering and us all sitting alongside each other with this great basketball content all in one place. It's about building that centralised home for basketball and being able to talk to an already bought-in audience. It's tapping into that wider audience of basketball fans in Europe as well as globally.
SLB has also announced a production partnership with EMG / Gravity Media and Brandvox. While Brandvox will handle the majority of the live game coverage, EMG / Gravity Media will look after around a quarter of the games and the league's video on-demand content.
Brandvox were looking after the league from a streaming perspective a few years ago and they're really well respected in that space in terms of being really nimble and agile. They're one of the smaller OBs and it helps that they're all basketball fans. They really wanted to work with us and develop the best offering for fans, Knights adds.
I'm also really pleased SLB is going to have its own half-hour highlights show, produced by EMG / Gravity Media, which will launch towards the end of the month, as the Trophy competition finishes and we go into the league proper. I've worked with EMG / Gravity Media through my connection with Bristol City, and was familiar with how they've approached that, in terms of producing the Women's Football Show for the Barclays Women's Super League. I'm excited to see this be developed and for fans to be able to watch an SLB show in one consistent place
Most recent headlines
18/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
18/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
18/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
18/12/2025
Long-term agreement includes the SES SCORE platform and hybrid distribution worldwide to deliver more than 5,000 hours of golf tournaments annually featuring th...
17/12/2025
Investigative journalists across the Western Balkans and T rkiye continue to con...
17/12/2025
Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame Inducts 10 Industry Icons During Unforgettable ...
17/12/2025
ESPN to Debut MNF Playbook with Next Gen Stats, a New AI-Driven NFL Data-AltCastThe series, powered by Adrenaline TruPlay AI, launches Dec. 22 and runs through ...
17/12/2025
Inaugural Optum Golf Channel Games Debut Under the Lights' in Primetime on ...
17/12/2025
The right playlist is essential on New Year's Eve, building the energy as you get ready and keeping it high as you count down to midnight. This year, Spotif...
17/12/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
17/12/2025
Audiences Watched Over 103 Billion Minutes of TV on Thanksgiving Day
NFL Games ...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
KPop Demon Hunters Stars Visit Berklee for Weeklong Celebration Andrew Choi and EJAE, who voiced the film's main characters and contributed to its soundtr...
17/12/2025
December 17 2025, 17:00 (PST) Dolby and LG Unveil a New Era of Home Audio With ...
17/12/2025
Wednesday 17 December 2025
Heated Rivalry will be coming to Sky and streaming service NOW on 10 JanuaryTurn on cookies to view this content. Go to Privacy opti...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Inside The Unseen World Of Indian Customs: Netflix Reveals The...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix announces PAPARAZZI KING: the docu series coming to Ne...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First Look at Jo Nesbo's Detective Hole Pr...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Welcomes Warner Bros. Discovery Board Recommendation
Business
17 December 2025
Global
Link copied to clipboard
After Careful Revi...
17/12/2025
RT has announced that Kathy Fox has been appointed Commissioning Editor with re...
17/12/2025
The Hao AI Lab research team at the University of California San Diego - at the forefront of pioneering AI model innovation - recently received an NVIDIA DGX B...
17/12/2025
Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on ...
17/12/2025
With the new season of Dancing with the Stars shimmering in the not-too-distant future this New Year, the celebrity and dancer pairings of the twelve couples ha...
16/12/2025
Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...
16/12/2025
Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...
16/12/2025
2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...
16/12/2025
Three 12-kilowatt Advanced Electric Propulsion System thrusters, supplied by L3Harris Technologies, form the core of Gateway's propulsion system. Pictured i...
16/12/2025
The challenge facing America's defense industrial base is not just about speed - its about rebuilding the foundation that makes speed possible. Our nations ...
16/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
16/12/2025
SEVILLE, Spain Canal Sur, the public broadcasting service for Andalusia, Spain, has completed a total technology refresh based on Pebble's resilient, softwa...
16/12/2025
NEW YORK Teleprompting hardware provider Telescript International has acquired all software code and intellectual property previously owned by Telescript West. ...
16/12/2025
As cable operators face increased competition from 5G fixed wireless access providers, a new report from Ookla Research finds that T-Mobile is the FWA speed lea...
16/12/2025
Apple has announced a major upgrade to the Apple TV app for device owners outside the Apple ecosystem with news that the Apple TV app for Android now supports G...
16/12/2025
Space42 grows Direct-to-Device partner ecosystem through a Memorandum of Underst...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Emma Appleton, Fares Fares, Frida Gustavsson and Jakob Oftebro...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Docu-reality My Korean Boyfriend Gets a Trailer and Premiere D...
16/12/2025
Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor Improves Streaming Video Quality and Boosts Viewer Engagement SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 16, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: ...
Super League Basketball: Sustainability and consistency in focus as new league shares broadcast plans By Jo Ruddock 
