New FIBA broadcast partner Spark Sport to help ignite international basketball in New Zealand

MIES (Switzerland) - FIBA is broadening its media presence in New Zealand with Spark Sport who has signed a new agreement to broadcast FIBA's major competitions until 2025. 

Spark Sport has secured exclusive broadcast rights and has announced 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 2023.

This new agreement will commence with the upcoming FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers, which begins this week. Eighty national sides will play home and away games across six qualifying windows to secure their places in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. The Qualifiers will be played over four regions of Africa, Americas, Asia/Oceania and Europe in the lead up to FIBA's flagship event. The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 tips off on August 25, 2023, and will be played for the first time across three host nations - the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.

New Zealand's national basketball teams have been on the international stage recently. The women's team, known as the Tall Ferns, recently finished fifth in the FIBA Women's Asia Cup 2021, while the Tall Blacks participated at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China.

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.  

In addition to expanding its basketball content, Spark Sport's subscribers have seen coverage grow to include some of the world's best sport, including extended NBA, WNBA, and NFL action, as well as UFC, the United Rugby Championship, UEFA Champions League and Diamond League World Athletics.

FIBA