Streak Shooter

IF there is one thing that ABS-CBN Sports should do in order to improve its coverage of the NBA games, it's that it has to add more weekend games on its flagship station Channel 2. At present, the NBA on ABS-CBN is only on Saturday mornings. The first half is delayed but the second game comes in live with the usual Taglish commentary coming from PBA legends Benjie Paras and Ronnie Magsanoc. On Fridays, Sundays and Mondays, ABS-CBN airs its NBA telecast on its sister channel S+A which used to be the old Studio 23 that aired a number of canned shows in the 90s. As I have posted many times on this blog, ABS-CBN should add one Sunday game on Channel 2 aside from its regular Saturday games.  Here are the reasons why ABS-CBN should add a Sunday game on Channel 2. 1. It's better than a Tagalized Disney movie. The Sunday morning time slot on ABS-CBN is usually reserved for kids who stay at home with their families. But a big problem in that time slot is the K...

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...

MANY listeners of the government radio station Radyo Pilipinas have noticed that Mon Tulfo has not been heard on his morning radio show Isumbong Mo Kay Tulfo for the past few days. His sons Bon and Patrick have been pinch-hitting for their dad in his absence. Many listeners say that Bon sounds like his dad while Patrick has done radio work in the past for DZRJ AM and now has his own program on DZME 1530 khz. In my own observation, Mon's absence is due primarily to the fact that he is busy attending to his own public service concerns in his office in Greenhills, San Juan. He has also been preoccupied with writing his column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. His brothers Erwin and Ben Tulfo are also active in government media. Erwin is no longer doing news for PTV 4 but he still has his 10 am radio show on Radyo Pilipinas after Isumbong Mo Kay Tulfo. Ben, for his part, still has his Bitag Live at 8 am on both PTV 4 and Radyo Pilipinas as well as his Bitag New Generation on...

WITH the new NBA season a week old, there have been a lot of surprises taking place on the floor. The biggest news so far this young season is how the Los Angeles Lakers have gotten off to a bad start in the LeBron James era, losing three straight games including an overtime heartbreaker against the San Antonio Spurs in their most recent game. Prior to the Spurs game, the Lakers also bowed to the Portland Trail Blazers and the Houston Rockets in a game that saw the ejection of Brandon Ingram and Rajon Rondo following a fight with Chris Paul during a heated moment in the fourth quarter. The Lakers' bad start has led many to believe that it will be a struggle for them this season even with James on board. Against the Spurs, LeBron missed two free throws in the dying seconds of overtime that led to the game-winning shot by Patty Mills. Then LeBron missed a long jumper at the buzzer that sealed the Lakers' loss. In fairness to LeBron, the Lakers are still a flawed t...

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 Premi...

AS WE have posted in this blog, government FM radio has changed dramatically under the Duterte administration because of the two new stations FM1 87.5 and FM2 104.3. Both stations are part of the newly-organized Philippine Broadcasting Service under Director Bong "Sonny B" Aportadera, who was appointed by Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar primarily because of their close ties to the president being natives of Davao City. As you can see in this photo, the PBS and PCOO released the results of a recent car survey showing both FM1 and FM2 making it to the top 10. It's strange though that the other stations in this survey belong to the CD market where they play mostly love songs and OPM hits. In other words, the masa market. A separate survey that came out months ago showed that FM1 and FM2 are also giving the other contemporary pop music stations like Monster RX, Magic 89.9, 99.5 Play FM and Mellow 947 a run for their money. It's not surprisin...