ESPN5's Super Bowl Problems

Tom Brady's Super Bowl loss was something TV5 took for granted. (photo from www.awfulannouncing.com)
MANY people here in the States are still talking about the historic 41-33 win by the Philadelphia Eagles over the defending champion New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII held in Minneapolis.

As usual, most Americans are talking about the huge number of commercials that were shown during breaks in the game, including the new ads of such products as M&M and Head and Shoulders and the new movie trailers of upcoming films like Avengers and Mission Impossible Fallout.

In the Philippines, TV5 aired Super Bowl LII under its tie-up with ESPN but unlike the US airing, its commercial spots were limited to the Manny V. Pangilinan-owned hospital Medical City, as well as plugs of other TV5 sports coverages like the PBA, SportsCenter Philippines and the Gilas Pilipinas World Cup qualifiers.

It's very understandable that ESPN5 didn't air a lot of local commercials during the Super Bowl because many Filipinos aren't that into NFL football and are more into basketball, especially the NBA and the PBA.

TV5 entered into its tie-up with ESPN primarily to break even because its struggles as a mainstream channel have been going on for a long time. Their entertainment programming suffered a huge blow when its president Chot Reyes (also the Gilas Pilipinas coach) scrapped its entertainment department and laid off many employees from its news department in favor of bringing in a lot of sports with no awareness value among Filipinos.

The biggest handicap facing ESPN5 is that it doesn't have the broadcast rights to the NBA which are held right now by ABS-CBN and Solar Entertainment. But both ABS-CBN and Solar are locked in a heated court battle over carriage fees on cable which may have a big effect on who gets the bidding for the TV rights in the future once the current contract expires.

ESPN5 also needs a good sports marketing person who can sell the channel to a Filipino audience. Right now, most people prefer watching the primetime soap operas and reality shows on the other networks like ABS-CBN and GMA 7. Chot Reyes has limited skills as a channel head and he needs a lot of help in marketing ESPN5 to the average Filipino sports fan.

Here in the US, big sports events like the NBA and NFL are shared among the giant TV networks. But the exact opposite happens in the Philippines where the networks are in a tug-of-war and no one wants to give in. That's what happens when crab mentality prevents Filipinos from really prospering as a country.


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