FIBA has signed a new agreement with Spark Sport to broadcast its major competitions in New Zealand, ensuring Kiwis can watch international basketball action leading up to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 and beyond.
The exclusive FIBA broadcast agreement runs until 2025, commencing with the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers later this year.
Spark Sport’s broadcast contract also includes the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022, FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, FIBA’s Youth World Cups, both the men’s and women’s FIBA Continental Cups and the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments in the lead up to Paris 2024.
Basketball New Zealand Chief Executive, Dillon Boucher says that the agreement between FIBA and Spark Sport reflects the fact that the Tall Blacks and Tall Ferns brands are steadily growing in both popularity and value.
“This is a win for fans of international basketball in New Zealand, and it comes off the back of our Tall Ferns finishing fifth in the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup 2021 earlier this year and the Tall Blacks participating in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China,” says Boucher.
“The Tall Blacks presence in China alone was massive that year, with the FIBA Basketball World Cup shown in 190 countries around the world to over 3 billion people – the Tall Blacks joining China and USA as the only teams to see all three pool games broadcast on CCTV5 which is China’s biggest free-to-air sports channel.
“We’re looking forward to continuing our basketball success on the world stage, so it’s great that the kiwi public will be able to watch these FIBA games.”
Head of Spark Sport, Jeff Latch says that he is delighted to be able to extend their basketball line-up to include the FIBA Women’s and Men’s Basketball World Cups and FIBA’s new 24/7 linear channel – featuring the best of FIBA basketball action.
“The last FIBA Basketball World Cup attracted a cumulative global TV broadcast audience of 3 billion – an 80% increase on the TV audience for the previous edition in 2014,” says Latch.
“We expect viewership of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 to continue to grow and we’re excited that Spark Sport can cater to this increasing demand for basketball in Aotearoa.”
FIBA Media and Marketing Services Director General, Frank Leenders says that the announcement is great news for basketball fans in New Zealand.
“The passion for the sport in this part of the world is continually growing and this partnership with Spark Sport allows for new synergies and levels of commitment which will provide fans with unprecedented coverage and access to FIBA competitions in the years to come.”
