Sport1 facing competition for basketball rights

German sports broadcaster Sport1 is facing competition from three other broadcasters for the rights for the Basketball Bundesliga, the domestic basketball league.

League managing director Jan Pommer said the league was in talks with pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland, telco Deutsche Telekom and pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport, as well as Sport1, about a new rights deal that would start next season.

“Our core purpose is to attract more people to basketball,” Pommer said. He said the long-term goal was to establish the Bundesliga as Europe’s top basketball league by 2020.

Sport1 attracts an average audience of 120,000 for its one live domestic basketball game per week.