Band extends LNB rights deal

Brazilian broadcaster Rede Bandeirantes has agreed an extension to its rights deal with the Brazilian Basketball League (LNB) to cover its top-tier club competition, the NBB.

The Istoe.com.br website said Rede Bandeirantes, otherwise known as Band, has signed a two-year extension to its deal, covering the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons of the NBB.

Band last year agreed a one-season deal covering the 2016-17 campaign and broadcast games free-to-air on Saturdays, alongside SporTV, the pay-television broadcaster of media group Globo.

Band replaced commercial broadcaster RedeTV as an NBB rights-holder. In the first season of the new deal, Istoe.com.br said pay-television channel BandSports will show repeats of games, with live games following in 2018-19. Band will continue to broadcast games free-to-air on Saturdays.

The agreement comes after the LNB last month continued its commitment to innovation in the domestic media market by agreeing a live streaming partnership with social media platform Twitter.

Under the agreement, Twitter will live stream 17 games from the 2017-18 season of the NBB, commencing with the clash between Sesi Franca Franca and Paulistano/Corpore on November 10.

Games will be live streamed on Fridays and will be provided by Twitter for free globally. The LNB last year entered into a partnership with Facebook through which it became the first domestic sports organisation to stream games via the social media platform’s Facebook Live service.

The latest deal marks the first live streaming of Brazilian sport through Twitter.