NBA League Pass Broadband Available in New Zealand/Australia

I'm not sure where to put this, but I think it's more NBA talk than General or Entertainment. Anyway, I hear alot from the Aussies on this forum with complaints about the coverage of the NBA with Foxtel and what not. I gave up on SKY a while back, and now just watch the NBA for free through things like SopCast, TVU and ViperNet. However, most of these games are either in Chinese or from a particular person in a city where their local team is mostly broadcasted. Basically, I chose between Nets games, Rockets games in Chinese and sometimes the odd ESPN game.

I have been reading all over the net, people from Australia requesting for someone to buy NBA League Pass Broadband and send the password to them, that way the bypass the fact they can't order from Australia. I figured that because I want to expand my coverage alot more this season, that I would do the same. When I was searching in Google, I came across this:

Elsewhere in the world, the NBA just announced that NBA League Pass Broadband on NBA.com “will be expanded to select countries,” including Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

The NBA is to announce next week that the NBA League Pass Broadband on NBA.com will be expanded to select countries.

Fans in these countries will have access to around 30 NBA games each week.

Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland are going to be offered this access.

A league spokesman said Wednesday that a final subscription fee for the service had not been determined. Several packages of options are to be offered.

The quotes are both from articles published late last year, Nov/Dec 2006. I was pretty shocked to see this, so I went to the NBA League Pass Broadband official site to check it out. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any details on this or when it would come into effect. So, I emailed the technical support email on the site and asked myself if I could order and watch League Pass from New Zealand.

I didn't get a definative answer back, but I did get this:

Hello Shannon,

Please visit the following:
http://www.nba.com/broadband/league_pass_intl.jsp

Best Regards,

NBA Subscription Support

I clicked the link and the first sentence says: "NBA League Pass Broadband is now available in your area!". The URL was obviously meant for international purchases, so I guess it is available.

This may be old news, but with me just finding out now I'm pretty excited. Being able to choose from 30 games a week is going to be great, even if my broadband usage costs are going to skyrocket.

It's $70 for a half season pass, so I guess US$140 for the season, around NZ$185 or AU$165. Seems pretty decent to me, especially since I payed around $50 a month for 3 games a week if I'm lucky.

I don't think I can order yet, because when I try to, it runs through the speedcheck then goes no further. I recently got a real good ISP so I doubt theres any problems with my speed.

Anyway, I hope this is the end of the dark ages for us all.

Nice find!Still i'll try to have this....

Wicked! If this is for real then I won't have to fork out $500+ for a pontel league pass. Might go do the speed check now. Thanks for the very very good news Shannon

Austria

Yhippiiiee

Thanks for that great news Shannon

Awesome, thanks for the heads up. Still, I hope Foxtel gets their act together next year because the coverage of the 2007 Playoffs was horrific. The regular season was really good though.

Just to let everyone know, I contacted them again about the problem with the order. They said I should be able to order now, and to contact them if I still can't. I couldn't so I emailed them back and said they have worked on somethings in the NZ database and the order should go through now. It still didn't, so they are looking into it further. If any Aussies could go through the order process (up until billing) just to see if it's working you guys I would really appreciate it.

At least I know it is available here, and if its available in NZ, its definately available in Aussie.

I still can't believe that I'm gonna have the choice of 30+ games each week this season.

I'm so gonna fail my Graphic Design course now.

i cant even get my cable provider to carry it here in the USA lol

That's great news if it all pans out.

I had a mini-drama with them last year trying to get a day pass. Basically, ended up being charged for it even though i was in the wrong zone here in NZ (it didnt say so at the time) & had quite few difficulties getting a refund back.

That being said, being able to watch games that wouldn't normally be televised nationally (ESPN, ABC etc) is fantastic to say the least. The 400x300 pixel stream quality is a little concerning - but definately watchable. I'll be signing up for it for sure this season...

Just to let everyone know, I contacted them again about the problem with the order. They said I should be able to order now, and to contact them if I still can't. I couldn't so I emailed them back and said they have worked on somethings in the NZ database and the order should go through now. It still didn't, so they are looking into it further. If any Aussies could go through the order process (up until billing) just to see if it's working you guys I would really appreciate it.

At least I know it is available here, and if its available in NZ, its definately available in Aussie.

I still can't believe that I'm gonna have the choice of 30+ games each week this season.

I gave the process a shot. I got through the speed connection check, then it went to a screen saying my cart was empty. Is that the same as you?

Maybe you can't purchase until it is closer to the start of the season?

Looking forward to trying out a few pre-season games (which are usually free I believe on league pass) for free to check if my broadband is fast enough, then if it is I will go all in for sure. Can't wait to finally get decent Bucks coverage and watch all the big games of the year.

I gave the process a shot. I got through the speed connection check, then it went to a screen saying my cart was empty. Is that the same as you?

Maybe you can't purchase until it is closer to the start of the season?

Looking forward to trying out a few pre-season games (which are usually free I believe on league pass) for free to check if my broadband is fast enough, then if it is I will go all in for sure. Can't wait to finally get decent Bucks coverage and watch all the big games of the year.

Yep, same problem as me. I got a email before to say they're still working on it, but it's definately available. My guess was the same as yours, it's just not ready to be ordered - we'll see.

I can't wait to finally have the ultimate freedom for what I wanna watch, especially since the games are also archived. I think that's something like 1100 games over the course of a season (roughly 30 a week) for AU$165. 6-7c for a game is tremendous value.

It also means we should get to see each team twice a week, which is great, especially for those of us who follow a particular team.

Today is probably my best day NBA wise since MJ was still playing. I finally get to see the "full" story.

I normally would consider it, but I'm assuming you don't get coverage for college hoops, so no point really....

great news for the NBA only fans though

Man this was what i was hoping for, but i cant quite afford that... Maybe when im older, at least i know it's available
Thanks for the find
[size=0]I download most Nugget game's through torrents anyway[/size]

Just an update, the reason you can't sign up is the site won't allow international orders till September/October. I got an email from them today.

oh man... just came back from a party... darn thursday... didn't get laid tho which sux big time

speaking of aussies, where is laxation, the first person to give a warm welcome in this forum...
hope he didn't go suicidal...

So Shannon, do you think you could share your LP account with me, once you get it?

can you guys tell me how is the quality of the vids...
im planning to get it coz its available here in the phils...

can you guys tell me how is the quality of the vids...
im planning to get it coz its available here in the phils...

Yeah it's 400 x 300

speaking of aussies, where is laxation, the first person to give a warm welcome in this forum...
hope he didn't go suicidal...

You DO remember me!

these forums are too slow for me... i dunno why... pisses me off though

on more relevant news, with 30 games a week, I need to get unlimited broadband

Finally we get league pass here ive been waiting for 5 years stupid ESPN never play Raptor games so this year every raptor game wohooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ill spend 200 on this thing i dont care I LOVE THE NBA

speaking of aussies, where is laxation, the first person to give a warm welcome in this forum...
hope he didn't go suicidal...

You DO remember me!

these forums are too slow for me... i dunno why... pisses me off though

on more relevant news, with 30 games a week, I need to get unlimited broadband

word

how can i forget aussie like u lax... one of a kind

on more relevant news, welcome to civilization