'You can touch it': Why Nine backed the NBL's growing momentum

9Network's Director of Programming Geoff Dyer says it was the growing buzz and ratings momentum around the Hungry Jack's NBL, not a pitch from the League, that first put the competition on Nine's radar.

Two games will be live and free on the 9Network this Saturday, September 19, as the new season tips off, with all the action available on ESPN, 9Go! and 9Now. Melbourne faces Adelaide and Perth hosts South East Melbourne, with the Wildcats' opener also live on 9 in Perth.

Tip-off is from 7:30pm AEST.

"The NBL really kind of came onto our radar just based off the growth that it's had. I mean, we could see it in the ratings that it was getting," Dyer said on The Moneyball podcast.

"There are a number of sports that are either good to go and watch live in person, or maybe a bit better to watch on TV. The NBL is both. It is a fantastic thing to go into the venue... and as a TV product, it is end-to-end, it is non-stop action.

"You can also just touch it. Once you're starting to see chatter in mainstream media news services, once your feed on social media is starting to get more and more NBL on it, you can just feel that it's starting to gain a bit of momentum."

The 9Network will broadcast two Saturday games every week of the NBL27 campaign , while every game of the season is live on ESPN.

Dyer says the gap between the NBA and the NBL is narrowing, with the League's rising international reputation drawing more overseas talent to Australian shores, an appeal that stretches from casual viewers to die-hard fans.

"I think there was a time where I think people felt that the delta between, say, the NBA and the NBL was quite significant," he said.

"You've got more players coming in from overseas, the Next Stars program as well, which is exciting... sort of at both ends of the spectrum of players and their experience. There's a lot [of talent] coming, which is really great."

Dyer said Nine's decision to bring the NBL back to the network had been met with huge enthusiasm.

"When we announced the NBL, the broad kind of outpour of support from people in our business, from hosts, from talent, was overwhelming. We didn't expect to see all of these NBL fans just scattered everywhere across our business," Dyer said.

"We want to encourage them to become NBL spokespeople, to be telling the story of the game. And the best part of that is to try and interweave them into the coverage as well, so that they truly feel like they're part of the story."

But Dyer says Nine's focus won't just be on ratings.

"To be honest, it's growing the game, full stop," he added.

"So for us, in any of the conversations that we had with the NBL, which is a wonderful organisation ... if the objective between us was to grow the game, there was never 'well, it's that we can't do that, that's a bad idea.' It's like, 'do we think that'll grow the game? Okay, well let's see if there's a way that we can do that', because all of the other success will follow if we can just grow the game. So that is what success looks like to us," Dyer said.

"And that might be on metrics that don't directly affect us. So, yes, television ratings will be a direct driver of revenue for us, and a big measure of success, but attendance will be a big measure of success for us, of whether we've grown the game. Club memberships for us will be a big measure of success. Social interactions will be a big measure of success.

"It's all of those touch points on the game, we just want the NBL to be talked about everywhere as much as possible, because that's how you have long-term success in the code."

Dyer says Nine no longer views its sports deals as simple content acquisitions.

"Much more as a partnership. 100 per cent," he continued.

"I don't think there are any sports that we just acquire anymore.

"Everything is a partnership. If we are bringing those kind of considerable assets to bear on a sport, we want that to be a two-way partnership where everyone's benefiting. And the athletes are benefiting, because the athletes become more professional, the sport gets better, and this cycle just continues to get better and better."

Watch Melbourne take on Adelaide and the Wildcats host the Phoenix, live on ESPN, 9Go! and 9Now from 7:30pm AEST on Saturday. The game will also be live on 9 in Perth.