BTV and NBA Premium Are Back with Sky



AS THE NEW NBA season has already started, many NBA fans in the Philippines got a piece of good news: Basketball TV and NBA Premium TV, the two channels that show NBA games, were reinstated on Skycable after the two channels were suddenly removed from the cable giant before the start of last season's playoffs.

The announcement may not have come at a better time when many Skycable subscribers were already considering changing cable providers as a result of the court charges filed against each other for alleged non-payment of carriage fees worth millions of pesos.

Because of the BTV and NBA Premium pullout, Skycable subscribers had to contend with watching NBA games on ABS-CBN Channel 2, ABS-CBN S+A and Fox Sports. But all those three channels don't show NBA games everyday because S+A and Fox have other sports coverages while Channel 2 has its other daytime shows.

Apparently, huge public pressure may have played a major role in Sky's decision to bring back NBA Premium and BTV. Both channels show NBA games live daily in the mornings with replays at night and it is no secret that many cable TV subscribers love to watch the NBA and are willing to pay thousands of pesos in cable fees just to enjoy watching good basketball.

The conflict between Skycable -- a company owned by ABS-CBN -- and Solar Entertainment, the owners of BTV and NBA Premium, stems not just from the carriage fees issue but also rumors that ABS-CBN is interested in the sole bidding for the  NBA's free TV and cable rights in the Philippines. At present, Solar holds the rights and tapped ABS-CBN as free TV partner for the NBA in 2011 in an effort to reach out to a wider audience compared to the time the NBA games were shown on RPN 9, a sequestered channel which is now CNN Philippines.

ABS-CBN recently launched a new sports channel called Liga which will surely show the NBA games if the network takes the rights away from Solar. At present, Liga shows the games of the Premiere Volleyball League and some international football games.

The current contract between Solar, ABS-CBN and the NBA is due to expire at the end of the current NBA season in June next year and the Skycable decision could play a major role if the contract will be renewed or not. Should the contract not be renewed, ESPN5 can step in and offer a better bid to show the games daily with replays at night after the PBA games.

Recently, Solar launched a new digibox unit called Easy TV where both NBA Premium and BTV are part of its channel lineup, as well as all other free TV channels. An Easy TV unit costs P1,000 so it is affordable for those who don't want to pay high cable fees.

Let's hope Solar and ABS-CBN iron out their differences soon and renew their partnership for the NBA. The Kapamilya Network has done a fantastic job marketing the NBA to Filipino televiewers by introducing Taglish commentary to the Saturday games on Channel 2, aside from coming up with a section on NBA news on its sports website www.sports.abs-cbn.com.






Location: El Sobrante, CA, USA

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