It's All About The Media

After the finances and the recruitment strategies are in place, the sport needs to make sure the media coverage is in place to inspire future generations.

The third part of the series will focus on basketball on TV. What you see on TV or pertinently what you don’t see.

To get involved with the sport people need to see it and what’s crucial for youngsters is to see their heroes and inspire them to play for the Newcastle Eagles or the Glasgow Rocks etc. just like children grow up wanting to play for Manchester United or Liverpool FC.

There's a generation of young players looking to be inspired and "There’s so much content sitting there just waiting to be shouted about," Mike Tuck said.

As well as playing for the Sheffield Sharks in the BBL, Mike Tuck has been an analyst for Sky Sports’ NBA coverage and said: “(The NBA coverage is) absolutely huge, especially for the younger generation’s that are watching sport on TV. For them to have access to that is huge, and the NBA is the biggest and best league in the world, and you’ve got the top players in the world playing in the league.

“For me I just think of my own journey and that’s why started to fall in love with basketball. In the early to mid-90s watching all those games and seeing Michael Jordan play as well and the Raptors (that inspired me). That’s the type of thing that could happen for people in the UK.

"Back in the 90s Sky used to show the NBA, that generation talk always talked about watching the NBA on Sky and about the BBL golden era in the late 90s. I’m hoping (Sky’s coverage) will generate the same vibe and give basketball the kick start it needs in this country.

“It would be a great place for Sky to start, to show some sort of highlights or magazine show featuring the British Basketball League alongside the NBA coverage. It's a great idea to feature British players or guys like myself who made this our home. There’s so much content sitting there just waiting to be shouted about and Sky would be a great platform for that. It would help the BBL and the sport grow.

Currently you can watch the BBL online on LiveBasketballTV or on the BBC red button and BBL commentator Daniel Routledge said: “Would it make a difference if it was on BBC TV? Yes it would. You’ve got a way bigger audience - the challenge for that is it needs a way bigger investment. To be worth putting it out on terrestrial or a satellite TV channel you’d need a truck and a much bigger production team - you wouldn’t be able to stream it which is the way it’s done now. 

“I don’t think TV companies spend as diversely as they did 20 years ago. When I started, football had taken over everything and sucked up all the money. The Premier League is in a different league. The thing that sells (TV) subscriptions is football - and not much else. The difficulty for basketball is how do you get someone to fund the coverage of it? 

“There’s still something about being live on a channel that gives you status and saying you’re on BBC or Sky sports peaks the interest. Football has hoovered up every slot from Friday night to Sunday night and wherever you go you’re fighting against that. 20 years ago, the sport pages were pages of sport now they’re pages of football.

“A highlights show isn’t actually much cheaper (than live TV) we did a weekly highlights show back in 2003 or 04 and you still need to go and film and edit all the games. If you’re wanting a Match of the Day style you’ve got the send cameras to every venue and there’s a cost of that."

Sky Sports News' Nik Hobbs said: “I think a magazine/highlight show on terrestrial television would be great. Back in the 90s, they used to show a highlights show on Channel 4 on Sunday morning. Ask anyone into basketball who is 30 and older and they’ll cite that as a big part of their basketball experience as a kid.

Sky Sports this season gained the rights for the NBA and shows live matches every week with some of the biggest and best players in the world. Hobbs added: “Broadcasting NBA games should help. It has to help.

“The more access people have to watching sport then the more enthusiasm there’ll be for the sport. I think it’s important to look at who we’d like to see get into the sport, and how they watch sport. If young people want to see Steph Curry highlights, they can watch it within seconds on their phone. So, while broadcasting the NBA in this country will help, I think there are much greater issues to address when it comes to popularity.

One area where basketball coverage has been lacking is the coverage online and in the British media. On the BBC the NBA gets a certain amount of coverage with the big stories such as LeBron going to the Lakers and how he missed the playoffs. Broadcast journalist Jack Skelton of the BBC shared his personal thoughts: “We went fairly big on the Damian Lillard 37-foot walk-off buzzer beater against the Thunder the other week. I’d have been tempted to have done even more on it – that was just an amazing sporting moment and surely one of the moments of the year.

“More in-depth, feature-type content would be good to see, alongside the more straightforward reports of big games. Hopefully despite the challenge that the sport faces in the UK around funding, being a very popular participation sport for young people will continue to be covered.”

For basketball to evolve and grow then the issue of media coverage must be addressed. Along with increased funding more people need to be watching the sport in order for them to become more invested in it. There simply needs to be a bigger presence online and on TV.

It may take a gamble from one of the media providers to launch BBL coverage but with Sky’s NBA coverage at least it’s moving in the right direction.

The next article in the series will delve into the troubles that basketball has to become a top sport in the UK.