This weekend, basketball fans subscribed to Global Destiny Cable were shocked to find that Basketball TV was no longer part of their channel line-up. The cable company announced that Solar, which owned the channel, had signed an exclusive deal with their competitor, which everyone took to mean Sky Cable, the country’s biggest CATV provider. It’s a curious turn of events given the history involving Solar, Sky, Destiny, and BTV.

In 2007, Solar Entertainment Corporation had a falling out with Sky, which at the time was broadcasting six Solar channels: BTV, Solar Sports, Jack TV, Crime/Suspense, ETC, and 2nd Avenue. Reports differed on the reason of the rift between the entertainment companies; some said that it had to do with Manny Pacquiao – Solar, which owned the rights, chose as its broadcast partner GMA-7, the biggest rival of Sky Cable’s owner, ABS-CBN – while others Sky simply wanted to drop some of Solar’s channels in favor of its own.

Continue reading "Solar screws Pinoy basketball fans, pulls Basketball TV out of Global Destiny Cable"

Here’s some news that should be of interest to all local sports fans: Last week, MediaQuest, the PLDT subsidiary that controls TV5, signed a deal with IBC-13 to air sports programs in the government-controlled network. A new primetime block called AKTV featuring sporting events will soon air on the channel.

In exchange for block time, Media Quest will improve the signal of the channel and upgrade network facilities nationwide.

The move comes as the latest part of MediaQuest’s aggressive expansion strategy, which saw the company pouring in P7 billion into TV5 in 2010 alone. In October, the network launched an all-news FM radio station, while its 24-hour news channel Aksyon TV went on air on UHF television last February.

Continue reading "TV5 signs block time agreement to air sports programming over IBC 13"

It was a little late, but Santa’s gift for me this past Holiday season was simply perfect, as two of my least favorite sportswriters, Ronnie Nathanielsz and Quinito Henson, took passive-aggressive shots at each other in a series of columns about the comparative television ratings of the Philippine football team matches and PBA games.

Nathanielsz kicked off stupidities with his report that the first Azkal semifinals game broadcast by Studio 23 (with him as the lead anchor, something he fails to mention in his story) rated better than the previous day’s PBA game, an elimination round game featuring Meralco vs. Rain or Shine. In a follow-up, Nathanielsz wrote that the second Azkals game on Studio 23 brought in higher ratings than the Air 21-San Miguel quarterfinals game that aired that same evening, although the football match still failed to garner as many viewers as that week’s quarterfinals match between Alaska and Barangay Ginebra.

Continue reading "Ronnie Nathanielsz and Quinito Henson have a holiday bitchfight over TV ratings"

Recah Trinidad opens his column today by saying that the reason there was no live broadcast of boxer Drian Francisco’s sensational knockout victory over Duangpetch Kokietgym in Thailand was because there were no broadcasters nationalistic enough to bother with it – as was the case for the recently-concluded Guangzhou Asian Games, which wasn’t broadcast in the country either.

(Really? We’re going to do this again?)

Continue reading "Filipino nationalism and the sweet science: A tale of two Inquirer columns"

If you’ve been active on Twitter, you might already be aware of the reaction of PBA fans about the ongoing technical problems of Solar TV and how it has been affecting the broadcast of the games. The network’s troubles started last October 15, when the first game between Alaska and Rain or Shine experienced intermittent broadcast interruption, while the second game between Meralco and Talk N Text was not broadcast at all.

Continue reading "Solar’s signal problems, the PBA’s delayed reaction, and the league’s next TV deal"

The Cuneta Astrodome was barely half-full, but you wouldn’t know it from the cheers of the audience. I went to the card with two of the biggest boxing nuts among my friends, Alekos Orendain, whom you might remember as the resident reviewer of the HBO 24/7 series on the site, and Alex Tizon, a Pulitzer Prize-winning colleague who “has been punched in the face more often than any of [his] closest friends.” Each of them had to travel halfway across the metropolis on a fine Saturday morning in January just to spend the next several hours watching skinny men pummel each other.

It was no surprise to us, therefore, that the crowd was composed of fellow boxing nuts who, when not screaming at the action in the ring, were busy hooting and hollering at, and pretty much sexually-harassing, the round girls during breaks. Testosterone dripped heavily in the air.

Continue reading "Carlos Tamara rallies for the upset over Brian Viloria; Donnie Nietes, Jimrex Jaca, Jason Pagara win"

As expected, Burger King made Japeth Aguilar the first overall pick in the 2009 PBA Draft. While the top picks went as planned, there were a handful of surprises, with a huge WTF moment with Alaska’s pick of Michael Burtscher. I’m guessing Rafe Bartholomew will now light himself on fire. Dude, how’s that tan coming along? My suggestion for your new Pinoy name: Rafael Baldemor. Parang bold star, diba?

Continue reading "2009 PBA Draft Results"

As expected, Barangay Ginebra guard Jayjay Helterbrand was named the PBA's Most Valuable Player last night, but his celebration did not last long, as he limped off the court in the fourth quarter of game 4 of Ginebra's best-of-seven Finals series against San Miguel. The Beermen capitalized and tied the series at two apiece with a 106-104 win.

Continue reading "Helterbrand is the new Atom Bomb, but SMB wins Game 4"

The Ryan Gregorio coaching watch continued last night, and the embattled coach extended his team's season with an 84-82 squeaker over Rain or Shine. Meanwhile, Yeng Guiao weaved his magic as the Burger King Whoppers dominated from start to finish to tie up its own series versus Sta. Lucia, 94-81.

Continue reading "About last night: Purefoods, Burger King even up in the PBA Fiesta Conference quarterfinals"

I thoroughly enjoy Victor Agustin's Cocktales column because, as you may have inferred from the posts on this blog, I love gossip. He's the gossip guy of the local business community.

Continue reading "Kuryente: Cocktales gets PBA story wrong"