Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Super League Basketball: Sustainability, Consistency in Focus as New League Shares Broadcast Plans

04/10/2024

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The BBL's licence was revoked at the conclusion of last season, meaning clubs had a matter of weeks to form a new league to be ready in time for a September start.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
LINK: https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/super-league-basketball-susta...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

13/08/2026

CMG Expands Local Sports Offering With Two NBA Deals

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

13/08/2026

Olympic Broadcasting Services to receive IBC2026 Internat...

IBC today announced that its most prestigious honour, the International Honour for Excellence (IHFE), will be presented to Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), ...

13/08/2026

Dalet Demonstrates the Future of AI-Orchestrated Live Spo...

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced its participation in the IBC2026 Accelerator Media Innovation Pro...

13/08/2026

dzjinius to showcase new dzjinius on-set application at I...

dzjinius, the all-in-one production management platform for the media and entertainment industry, will showcase its new application, dzjinius on-set , at IBC20...

13/08/2026

BCE Demonstrates Sovereign Cloud Media Workflows powered...

Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE), a leading European provider of media services, system integration and product development, will demonstrate an end-to-end sove...

13/08/2026

Clear-Com to Showcase Communications Solutions for Broadc...

Clear-Com is returning to IBC 2026, taking place September 11-14 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. At Stand 10.D29, Clear-Com will spotlight the award-winning FreeSpe...

13/08/2026

Leader to highlight advanced Test and Measurement solutio...

Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics of Europe, will showcase its comprehensive portfolio of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix test and measurement ...

13/08/2026

KRK Brings Advanced Wireless Control to Professional Monitoring With New V Series Five Studio MonitorsKRK Brings Advanced Wireless

KRK Brings Advanced Wireless Control to Professional Monitoring With New V Serie...

13/08/2026

Anthony Noack Captures Artist's Journey in Estonia with Blackmagic Design

Anthony Noack Captures Artist's Journey in Estonia with Blackmagic Design Brie Clayton August 12, 2026 0 Comments Solo filmmaker documents concept...

13/08/2026

ARRI Image Science makes its mobile debut in the HONOR Robot Phone

ARRI Image Science makes its mobile debut in the HONOR Robot Phone Brie Clayton August 12, 2026 0 Comments Hero image displays the HONOR Robot Phone, ...

13/08/2026

ASG Adds Eran Binyamin Zeitoun as Senior Technical Program Manager

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

13/08/2026

Vinten To Feature Manual, Robotic Camera Support Offerings At IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

13/08/2026

SMPTE Unveils IBC 2026 Plans

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

13/08/2026

IP Showcase on the Water Announces Schedule for IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

13/08/2026

Spectrum, Optimum Ink New Deals for News Carriage and Ads

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

13/08/2026

IAB Tech Lab Updates Privacy Standards

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

13/08/2026

Suitest Highlights New AI-Powered Device Testing and Qual...

Suitest's Test Automation Platform Simplifies Video Quality Assurance, Monitoring, and Device Certification Across the OTT Ecosystem At IBC2026, Suitest, a...

13/08/2026

Cinegy showcases powerful, agile, cost-effective media so...

Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, will have its key software solutions ready to demonstrate at SET Expo 2026 (18 20...

13/08/2026

Scripps Research establishes endowed chair honoring Peter K. Vogt, influential pioneer in cancer research

Scripps Research has established the Peter K. Vogt Endowed Chair, a new faculty ...

13/08/2026

New research offers fresh insights for how to make better vaccines

LA JOLLA, CA-A vaccine's molecular structure plays a key role in determining how the immune system responds and prepares to protect the body from future exp...

13/08/2026

Event Marks New Season with the RT Concert Orchestra

RT 's Miriam O'Callaghan welcomed a range of specially invited guests to the National Concert Hall last week for a unique event to mark a new season wit...

13/08/2026

Seattle Seahawks Become First Team to Bring Dolby OptiView with Dolby Vision to Fans

August 13 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Seattle Seahawks Become First Team to Bring Dolby O...

13/08/2026

Class Is in Session: GeForce NOW Levels Up Linux, Chromebooks and More

GeForce NOW is giving cloud gaming an extra-credit upgrade just in time for back-to-school season. The native Linux app for GeForce NOW is officially out of be...

12/08/2026

Op-Ed: The Versioning Playbook - How Rights Holders are Getting More From Live Events

Traditional live sports production has focused on creating the best possible pro...

12/08/2026

IBC 2026: FOR-A to Demonstrate Production and Processing Solutions

FOR-A will showcase a range of broadcast and production products at IBC2026 (Stand 2.B53, Amsterdam RAI, September 11-14), including software-based switching, A...

12/08/2026

IBC 2026: AMWA and EBU to Demo NMOS BCP-008 Multi-Vendor IP Status Reporting

The Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and EBU will host live demonstrations of NMOS BCP-008 Minimum Status Reporting at IBC2026 (September 11-14) on th...

12/08/2026

IBC 2026: Dalet Launches Solution Suites for Media Production and Archive Management

Dalet has announced Dalet Solution Suites, a portfolio of cloud-native solutions...

12/08/2026

Net Insight Enables Centralized Remote Production of Blinkfestivalen 2026 for NRK

Net Insight has announced that DMC Production Norway has selected its Open Live ...

12/08/2026

Zixi Appoints Alyson Stewart as Senior Director of Sales

Zixi has appointed Alyson Stewart as Senior Director of Sales. Stewart will be responsible for direct sales and partnerships, with a focus on broadcasters, medi...

12/08/2026

LiveU Powers Host Broadcast Operations at 2026 Glasgow Games

LiveU's LU900Q intelligent production unit was deployed as part of the host broadcast operation for the Games in Glasgow (July 23-August 2, 2026). Host broa...

12/08/2026

Disney+ and ESPN Acquire Multi-Year Formula E Rights Beginning 2026/27 Season

Disney , ESPN, and Formula E have announced a multi-year deal bringing all Formula E races to Disney and ESPN in the U.S. and to Disney in most international...

12/08/2026

PSSI Launches X-LIVE Managed Service for Live Event Transmission

PSSI has launched X-LIVE, a managed service offering dedicated engineering resources and Appear encoding infrastructure for live event signal processing and tra...

12/08/2026

MoonPay X Games League Draws 18.3 Million Viewers in Inaugural Summer Season

The inaugural MoonPay X Games League Summer Season reached 18.3 million unique live viewers across three stops on ABC and ESPN, a 78.5% increase compared to the...

12/08/2026

IBC 2026: BBright Adds RIST Support to IP-Gateway

BBright will showcase an expanded IP-Gateway at IBC2026, adding support for all RIST profiles to its existing support for MPEG Transport Stream over IP with SMP...

12/08/2026

IBC 2026: BBright Adds EBU OGraf Graphics Support to UHD and ST 2110 Playout Platform

BBright will demonstrate EBU OGraf animated graphics support in its software-bas...

12/08/2026

Interra Systems to Showcase QC and Monitoring Solutions at SET Expo 2026

Interra Systems will demonstrate its ORION, BATON, BATON Captions, and VEGA solutions at SET Expo 2026 (August 17-20, Distrito Anhembi, S o Paulo) at partner Li...

12/08/2026

DPA Microphones Appoints Raul Contreras as West Coast Regional Sales Manager

DPA Microphones has appointed Raul Contreras as West Coast Regional Sales Manager. In the role, Contreras will oversee sales and customer relationships througho...

12/08/2026

Save the Date: SVG LIVE! Returns to LA Nov. 10 to Spotlight Sports & Entertainment Production

Live spectacles ranging from the Super Bowl and FIFA World Cup to the Oscars and...

12/08/2026

Love, Separation, and the Cost of Comfort in How to Divorce During the War

Writer-Director Andrius Bla evi ius and crew attend the premiere of How to Divorce During the War at The Ray Theatre on January 26, 2026, in Park City, UT. (P...

12/08/2026

SSL 360 gets a major update

Enhanced DAW & plug-in control for the UC1, UF8 and UF1 The software that powers SSL's range of control surfaces has just received a major update that d...

12/08/2026

Triton Audio launch the Tilt EQ

In-line preamp features one-knob EQ In addition to their range of in-line preamps, Triton Audio recently managed to squeeze a compressor into an enclosure t...

12/08/2026

AudioRoute from Arvital Audio

Captures system audio with or without a DAW Depending on your setup, capturing system audio in a DAW can be a tedious process, so much so that Arvital Audio...

12/08/2026

2026 NATIONAL NAIDOC AWARDS TO BROADCAST ON NITV LIVE AND DIRECT FROM MPARNTWE

2026 NATIONAL NAIDOC AWARDS TO BROADCAST ON NITV LIVE AND DIRECT FROM MPARNTWE 12 August, 2026 Media releases First Nations excellence will be celebrated l...

12/08/2026

More than six million sports fans stay with SBS for Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift

More than six million sports fans stay with SBS for Tour de France and Tour de F...

12/08/2026

Nielsen Introduces Groundbreaking Streaming Ad Measurement in Brazil

Nielsen is cementing Digital Ad Intel as the new go-to currency for digital ad intelligence in Brazil-now with streaming monitoring in the mix. S o Paulo, Augu...

12/08/2026

LPTV Advocates Petition FCC for Voluntary 5G Broadcasts

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/08/2026

Tubi Media Group Inks Content Discovery Deal with Gracenote

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...