By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
The excitement of the race to punch the last remaining tickets to FIBA EuroBasket 2017 was taken to new heights thanks to a productive and extremely successful collaboration between European National Federations, broadcasters and FIBA which delivered unprecedented digital coverage of the Qualifiers.
Building on an initial partnership agreement between Swiss Basketball and FIBA which blazed the trail for coverage of their qualifying games, ten more nations came on board in similar fashion. The National Federations of Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Netherlands, Sweden, Russia, Ukraine and Poland all contributed to the initiative to increase the reach of the competition.
It proved to be hugely successful, with 440,000 views recorded for the 11 games which were multi-streamed on FIBA’s Youtube and Facebook channels – as well as on some of the Federation’s own digital platforms.
While each game was live-streamed via social media, the existing agreements between National Federations and broadcasters were protected thanks to geo-blocking in the territories covered by TV rights.
The expanded coverage secured increased exposure for National Federation sponsors, while giving supporters much wider and more easily available access to the games. It allowed fans to watch multiple European national teams in action, so they could soak up what proved to be an exciting climax to the FIBA EuroBasket 2017 Qualifiers.
Due to the success of the digital coverage, FIBA aims to explore similar partnerships with National Federations and broadcasters for the remaining FIBA EuroBasket Women 2017 qualifying games in November, 2016.