Solar vs Skycable: A New Twist

Boom Gonzales and Ronnie Magsanoc covering an NBA game for ABS-CBN (photo courtesy of Pong Ducanes of ABS-CBN Sports)
THE continuing conflict between ABS-CBN's Skycable and Solar Entertainment over the telecast of NBA games in the Philippines isn't over yet.

 Days after Skycable restored NBA Premium and Basketball TV in their lineup of channels, we just got a Facebook message from someone who requested anonymity informing us that Solar has again pulled the two channels out because of confidential reasons as requested by the courts following the carriage fees case filed by both parties last year.

 In case you still don't know yet, in 2010 Solar,  which holds the rights to air NBA games in the Philippines, and Sky Cable inked an agreement allowing the former to air its NBA channels with carriage fees.

 Four years after, NBA Entertainment entered into a Television License Agreement with Solar and ABS-CBN, where both networks were given rights to air NBA games. Solar could air the games over BTV and NBA Premium TV, while ABS-CBN could air the games on its free channels.
But Solar said ABS-CBN’s Sky Cable continued carry BTV and NBA Premium, even though it had stopped paying the carriage fees since 2014.
In May this year, Solar finally filed a complaint for a sum of money and damages before the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court (MRTC) against ABS-CBN, stating the media network owes them P659 million for letting its subsidiary, Sky Cable, air NBA Premium and BTV for three years without paying carriage fees.
ABS-CBN posted a counterbond worth P659 million to free up their bank deposits after the MRTC issued an order to garnish the media network’s bank account.
Many NBA fans in the Philippines have been infuriated by the conflict between ABS-CBN and Solar over the NBA TV rights especially since this comes at a time when the contract between the league and the two broadcasters that was signed in 2014 expires at the end of the current NBA season, which is in June 2019.
As a result, many NBA followers are now switching to the new Easy TV digital box where both NBA Premium and BTV are part of the channel lineup. And it won't be surprising if many Skycable subscribers switch to other cable providers like Cignal which have both NBA Premium and BTV in their channel lineup.
It's very sad to hear that money is the reason why the once formidable partnership between ABS-CBN and Solar is slowly breaking up and many NBA fans in the Philippines aren't happy over this development. If Solar does renew its contract with the NBA, then it should consider ESPN5 as the new free TV partner for the league. GMA 7 used to show NBA games in the 90s but at present, the Kapuso Network has no solid sports division.
If ABS-CBN should regain the confidence of the NBA fans, then it should expand its NBA coverage to daily games on S+A with weekend games on ABS-CBN Channel 2. As I have posted in this blog in the past, ABS-CBN should air a Sunday game on Channel 2 instead of those kiddie movies poorly dubbed in Tagalog. Reducing the time slot of ASAP will also be good for NBA fans who don't like the way the variety show is too long at close to three hours with all those young stars who try too hard to sing and dance plus too much belting from singers like Martin Nievera and Regine Velasquez.
I recently had a chat on Facebook with former Shell team manager Charlie Favis who told me that he still watches the Saturday NBA games on Channel 2 with his former players Benjie Paras and Ronnie Magsanoc as commentators. While he understands the feelings of many NBA fans who don't like the Tagalog commentary of the two PBA legends, he also thinks that the presence of Paras in the panel is a plus for ABS-CBN which is trying to introduce the NBA to a more mass-based audience.
I also hope Fox Sports Philippines channel head Jude Turcuato also makes an effort to air more NBA games for Skycable subscribers. I remember when ESPN still had a channel in Southeast Asia, it aired a lot of NBA games frequently before its shares were sold to Fox and ESPN didn't return to the Philippines until its deal with TV5 last year.
Clearly, NBA Filipino fans are the biggest losers in this Solar-Skycable conflict which, sadly, may take a long time before it's finally resolved.
Location: El Sobrante, CA, USA

Comments

  1. Network Sports memoriesDecember 22, 2018 at 8:18 AM

    Unlike in the 1990s, when the NBA games were aired on GMA-7 (later Citynet-27) most at the time but unfortunately today at present there's no solid sports division only "teleseryes", "K-Dramas" and "Lakorn" are mostly solid entertainment division for GMA-7 like "Onanay", who affected viewers like Natalie Montenegro (Kate Valdez), a main villain role for her..... Some of one Facebook page called "GMA Network Sports Memories" (https://www.facebook.com/RainbowKapusoSportsMemories) are always posted about the NBA legends to battle Kapuso female kontrabidas...

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