BBC Sport has secured a first-of-its-kind, two-year deal with England Netball to deliver live, free-to-air coverage from the Netball Super League.
The new deal includes one live match a week across the regular season, starting on Saturday February 24, streamed on BBC iPlayer and on the BBC Sport website and app.
The 2024 season gets underway this Saturday, February 17, with BBC Sport kicking off its live and on demand match coverage the following weekend with 2023 champions, Loughborough Lightning, facing Team Bath.
BBC Sport has already played a fundamental role in growing the profile of the game and bringing it to a mass audience. Most recently, BBC Sport broadcast the 2023 Netball World Cup in Cape Town, which saw England’s national team, the Roses, make it all the way to an exhilarating final against the 12-time champions, the Australian Diamonds.
Audiences have been brought Netball coverage by BBC Sport since its official debut at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, as well as the more recent 2019 and 2023 Netball World Cups. The England Netball team were also celebrated with a double win at BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2018, scooping up both Team of the Year and Greatest Sporting Moment for their Commonwealth Games gold.
Philip Bernie, interim director, BBC Sport said: “Our live netball coverage has become increasingly popular with audiences, and now they can follow the excitement of weekly NSL matches—free, live, and on demand—all season long. Following the success of the 2023 Netball World Cup final, which had an audience of 1.3m on the BBC, fans can now enjoy more live coverage as we keep delivering all the action of the game to a bigger audience.”
NSL managing director Claire Nelson added: “This is a hugely important milestone that enables us to showcase our sport to a bigger audience than ever before and is an incredible opportunity for the League, our clubs and our players to satisfy the appetite that we know is there.”
