British Basketball League Inks New Sky Sports Deal

October 16, 2012

The British Basketball League (BBL) have announced that Sky Sports will be showing 25 weeks of action from the British Basketball League (BBL) including live coverage of the Cup Final, Playoff Final, and Trophy Final.

Coverage begins in late October when the current BBL Championship holders, Newcastle Eagles, face the Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders in a repeat of last season’s Play-off Final. Weekly coverage will include a two hour show with an increased number of live games later in the season.

Barney Francis, managing director of Sky Sports, said: “This deal proves our commitment to offering a wide variety of live sports for our customers. Sky Sports caters for a broad range of diverse content and our recent rights renewals give us the strongest line up of live sport for our viewers to watch at home or on the move.”

BBL chairman, Paul Blake, commented: “Last season’s coverage was extremely well received throughout the sport and we are delighted to extend our relationship with Sky Sports into a third season. The coverage last term provided an excellent platform for BBL to showcase our exciting product and we anticipate this season it will be to an even higher standard.”

Coverage will again be provided in conjunction with the BBL’s broadcast partner, Televideo. Paul Scivill, the managing director of Televideo, said: “We are thrilled to be continuing our partnership with the BBL. We are extremely excited about this season’s coverage and the addition of more live games to the schedule.”

The BBL Agreement continues a series of rights renewals for Sky Sports, with no less than 16 deals over the last 18 months, including Barclays Premier League and UEFA Champions League football, Formula 1, TM Test Cricket and European Tour golf.