Basketball On The Internet.

AARON Flanagan should take a well-deserved bow.

The driving force behind the new NBL.TV deal which will allow us all to see every game this season, Flanagan has a right to be well proud because he has helped introduce the biggest and most important innovation since the NBL tipped off in 1979.

In fact, for as long as I have been involved, I cannot recall a more significant or important development since the late Dr John Rashcke in 1978 chaired a meeting of 10 club representatives in a disused aircraft hangar at Sydney Airport to discuss the formation of a national competition.

That's how big this deal is.

For years people have been saying the NBL needed to get game vision across multiple platforms and not be so dependent on Fox, as it was in the day, or Ten, as it is now.

Let's be brutally honest here - the new deal with the television network is excellent.

Having a game replayed on ONE every Friday at 9.30pm was good but to see a live game on Network 10 every Sunday in-season is huge.

That exposure in itself on Ten is massive.

But hats off to the BA Board's Justin Milne and to our man Aaron for not only getting that signed but to this new NBL.TV enterprise which will take our sport and our league a quantum leap forward.

Think about it.

For a piddly $59 ($79 after September 22), you can subscribe and see every game. You can watch them on your PC, your tablet, your mobile or your Internet Personal TV (in case you didn't know what IPTV is.)

Basketball Australia called this a "landmark deal'' when it was first announced this week but, for a change, BA underplayed it.

PERFORM - the company which owns websites Sportal.com.au, Goal.com and LIVESPORT.TV, and powers digital platforms for the NRL, the FFA and the EPL live streaming service for Fox Sports - will operate five cameras at every game.

Five.

If you watched "Howzat - Kerry Packer's War'' you should recall the lines: "Three cameras? Five is better. Five cameras? Seven is better. Seven cameras? Nine is better.''

That, of course, was for cricket. For basketball, five will be excellent, especially when you recall a lot of single-camera vision you may have seen on TV news services and the quality of some of the raw live streaming done previously.

But wait, there's more.

Matches and highlights will be there for subscribers on demand.

And the deal also includes production and distribution of national team games hosted in Australia.

That means digital access to Boomers and Opals games.

(Can someone from BA please read "Team NBL needs to be Boomers' barometer'' and get the ball rolling?)

NBL.TV is a league-owned platform rather than one owned by a rights-holder.

That means the NBL retains control of its own broadcast product and benefits directly from any generated revenue.

I can already foresee NBL vision popping up all over TV news bulletins and broadcasts because IT WILL BE AVAILABLE.

If this doesn't excite you, have someone check you for a pulse.

Think too of all the new talent which will be unearthed in fresh commentary teams.

A while back when some of our clubs were live-streaming their games, a number of informed, enthusiastic lovers of our sport were found and they made the old hats look, well, old hat.

We all got a little excited when Network 10 bought the rights for NBL games from Seven back in the day, and decided to go "prime time'' with a live game on Saturdays.

That, sadly, was premature.

But it did excite a lot of fans.

As did switching the seasons to summer from winter.

But, realistically, to "do an NBA'' and have all league games available for viewing is going to have the most profound impact on our product of all time.

This is huge. Make no mistake.

These are exciting times ahead so for anyone bemoaning "chaos and despair'' for the NBL (in the wake of Gold Coast's vanishing act) relax now and just enjoy this with the rest of us.

When the hell is tip off???