British Eurosport nets BBL rights

British Eurosport, the UK arm of pan-regional broadcaster Eurosport, has agreed a deal to become the new official broadcast partner of the British Basketball League for its 2013-14 season.

British Eurosport takes over from pay-television broadcaster BSkyB as the UK rights-holder of the league and is committed to broadcasting 26 weekly shows during the season across multiple platforms.

Coverage will begin on November 9 with action from the previous week’s BBL feature game – the Worcester Wolves’ clash with the Plymouth Raiders.

BBL commercial director David Leyden Dunbar said: “Our move to British Eurosport is about creating an appointment to view for the British basketball audience. Moving to more regular scheduling throughout the season I've no doubt that we'll be able to translate a surge of interest in the sport, reflected in our participation numbers, into a passionate following for the new weekly show. Accessibility also played a major role in the decision making process and with British Eurosport available on Sky, Virgin and BT’s new platform we're confident that we can build our audience through the season.”