Spark Sport Scores FIBA Rights In Major Coup For NZ Basketball Fans

Spark Sport is broadening its basketball offering for fans, securing exclusive broadcast rights in Aotearoa for FIBA (International Basketball Federation) competitions through to 2025.

With NBA TV already in its line-up, Spark Sport announced today it will become a new go-to platform for international basketball over the next four years as preparations ramp up for one of the world’s biggest sporting events – the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

Highlights of Spark Sport’s FIBA content will include:

• FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers – November 2021-November 2022
• FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2022 & FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 – July 2022
• FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup – September 2022
• FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2023 & FIBA U19 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2023 – June-July 2023
• FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023
• FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments & FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments 2024
• New FIBA Linear Basketball Channel

Head of Spark Sport, Jeff Latch says: “Since Spark Sport became an NBA TV distributor back in 2019, we’ve seen significant interest from basketball fans across the country as basketball’s popularity – both as a sport to play and watch – continues to grow.

“We expanded our basketball line-up in 2020 by securing the rights to a range of Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) matches and we’re delighted to now be able to extend our 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[1]. 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.”

"This is great news for basketball fans in New Zealand," FIBA Media and Marketing Services Director General Frank Leenders said. "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."

In addition to expanding its basketball content, over the past 12 months Spark Sport’s subscribers have seen coverage grow to include some of the world’s best sport, including extended NFL action, UFC, WNBA, the United Rugby Championship and Diamond League World Athletics. The streaming service is also now the home of international football with the addition of UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and UEFA Conference league.

Kiwis keen to book their pass to Spark Sport’s live and exclusive basketball action can sign up for only $24.99 a month at www.sparksport.co.nz.

[1] https://www.fiba.basketball/news/biggest-ever-fiba-world-cup-reaches-record-breaking-three-billion-people

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