A Possible Compromise?

HERE in the United States, the NBA is enjoying tremendous popularity so much that its television coverage has earned millions of dollars.

Since the NBA has a lot of teams, the games are spread out evenly among the national TV networks such as ABC and ESPN under Disney and TNT/NBA TV, which are owned by the Turner group.

But over there in the Philippines, the NBA TV rights are owned by the Solar Entertainment Group under movie producer Wilson Tieng. The games are shown on NBA Premium and Basketball TV.

ABS-CBN, on the other hand, holds the free TV rights and the games are shown on its sports channel S+A although Saturday games are aired on Channel 2 before the noontime show It's Showtime.

Some games have also been shown on Fox Sports but only on Thursdays and Saturdays.

Although ESPN does air some of the NBA games in the US, it's curious to note that these games aren't shown on ESPN 5 (formerly TV5) for the simple reason that ABS-CBN does hold the free TV rights until 2019 as part of Solar's contract with the latter network and the NBA itself.

As I have posted in my previous blogs, ABS-CBN's coverage of the NBA has been under criticism because the network uses Tagalog commentary for its Channel 2 games. Another criticism is that the games on Saturdays are to give way to the badly dubbed Disney movies and the variety show ASAP on Sundays, which is a top money-maker for the network.

With this in mind, I have a suggestion to ABS-CBN, Solar and ESPN5. And it's simple: Solar should work out a compromise by which ABS-CBN and the Solar channels can air the NBA TV and TNT games while ESPN5 can air the ESPN/ABC games.

Remember, it was Solar that got ABS-CBN and TV5, as well as GMA 7, to air the Manny Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather fight in 2015. There was also a time the FIBA World Cup and Southeast Asian Games were shown on both channels.

I don't see any reason why a concept like this can also work in the NBA although the problem lies in the fact that sports broadcasting rights in the Philippines is so competitive that it results in a lot of money to pay for such rights. And in the Philippines where the culture there is sometimes crab mentality, it can be harmful.

Airing the NBA on ESPN5 will also boost the channel and help it attract more advertisers. After all, the PBA is aired on that channel as well as less popular sports among Filipinos like the NFL and the US NCAA Division 1 basketball.

I hope ESPN5's Chot Reyes, Solar's Tieng and ABS-CBN's Dino Laurena sit down and discuss such a proposal. It may be difficult, but it can be done if all three set aside personal egos and work for a compromise that will benefit NBA fans in the Philippines.