In a crushing double blow to the bj-league's credibility, BS Fuji and Gaora gave up or reduced planned televised coverage of regular-season games after the 2011-12 season. The matter was essentially handled as a secret by the league office, which made no formal announcement about the issue.

Instead, the league has quietly been promoting BJTV, which has live webcasts of all league games online, but without announcers. The lack of commentators takes away a major element to each webcast, giving fans no analysis or insight about the players or strategies as the contests unfold.

And in a league starving to increase its fan base and become a major player on the nation's sports scene, alongside established leagues like Nippon Professional Baseball and the J. League, this is a major problem.