The Canadian Elite Basketball League has selected the Mediapro agency as its production partner for all matches that will be aired live by public-service broadcaster CBC during the 2020 season.
Mediapro will supply all the technical facilities, production crew and transmission services for the matches. It will produce seven regular-season games for CBC from May through to July, as well as the season-ending Championship Game on August 16. The first game to be broadcast by CBC will be expansion team Ottawa BlackJacks’ trip to the Hamilton Honey Badgers on May 30.
“After a long search process, it became clear that Mediapro was the right choice to partner with,” Mike Morreale, commissioner and chief executive of the CEBL, said. “Based on the continual investments they have made in their business and our desire to try new ways of showcasing our great product, it became an easy decision.”
CEBL and CBC agreed their latest rights deal in November, which saw the CBC Sports division of CBC extend its coverage by three years until 2022.
Under the agreement, CBC Sports will also offer live streams of all 70 regular-season games and its five play-off matches free of charge via the CBC Gem streaming service, on cbcsports.ca and via the CBC Sports app.
CBC Sports provided comprehensive coverage of the 2019 CEBL campaign, which was the competition’s inaugural season. Under a deal signed in June, CBC live-streamed the remaining 39 games of the season, as well as the Championship Weekend.