Bad news for NBA and WWE fans in the Philippines.
Since last week, Solar Entertainment channels Basketball TV, NBA Premium TV, Jack TV, Solar Sports and CT were unavailable on SkyCable. The message posted by the company is as follows:
SKY regrets to inform its valuable subscribers that Solar channels, namely NBA Premium, BTV, Jack TV, Solar Sports, and CT are temporarily not available. It is unfortunate that it has affected the airing of the NBA playoffs.
Solar has been our valued partner for many years. We are working with them for a resolution, but we cannot comment on the details of our discussions.
NBA fans, however, can continue to watch the playoff games beginning this Sunday, April 16, all through the finals via ABS-CBN Sports + Action and Fox Sports channel. They can check the updated schedules posted here.
The concerns of our subscribers and viewers are of utmost importance to us. Again, we offer our sincere apologies for the inconvenience.
The loss of Solar channels hit NBA fans hard, as Basketball TV and NBA Premium TV air a majority of the games daily per season. As a result, the NBA decided to appease the demands of viewers by assigning two games per day on ABS-CBN’s S+A channel, plus a select amount on Fox Sports Philippines and ABS-CBN Channel 2 while the situation is being fixed.
This is not the first time that SkyCable viewers vented their anger over the company’s issues with Solar Entertainment. In 2008, SkyCable pulled out Basketball TV, Jack TV and Solar Sports in favor of Creative Programs’ own channels due to an alleged television contract issue with Manny Pacquiao, but the channels were later reinstated.
Moving over to the world of sports-entertainment, FOX Philippines stunned Filipino wrestling fans by announcing that they will no longer carry WWE programs on the network after an attempt to negotiate a renewal failed to materialize. The statement can be seen below.
FOX had been a valued partner of the WWE since 2011, airing not only pay-per-views, 205 Live, NXT, Raw and SmackDown, but also complementary programs. However, the network drew the ire of some wrestling fans when it failed to air a select number of pay-per-views following the brand extension last July.
In a related development, TV5 announced that they have agreed to air WWE programs beginning April 30. No further details were made, but the network is expected to use Channel 5, AksyonTV and HYPER as vehicles to broadcast WWE events, both live and recap.
It remains to be seen if TV5 will do the same things that FOX used to do, but regardless, wrestling fans should rejoice this decision. Good luck.
From the Tube 
You may try to read this
https://business.inquirer.net/227956/biz-buzz-cable-tv-standoff?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#link_time=1492573608
OMG. Solar’s situation with Sky is even worse than originally thought. 2007 pullout revisited, it seems.
I’m not surprise about it. We can’t point out who to blame as of this moment. We can’t blame ABS because they want to put more content on the NBA as if they own the whole partnership. And we can’t blame Solar because that is one of the few properties that keep them afloat and they don’t want to lose it at this point.
The only choice they have now is to settle this issue and perhaps both ABS and Solar can join forces in order to run their channels. It’s probably a win-win situation now considering Solar’s financial issues of late.
Somehow some of us understand and analyze the situation between both parties. Most of the people who comment on articles about this issue says they are willing to change from Sky to Cignal just to watch the NBA and this is actually ridiculous because as humans we have more important things to pay with our money than cable or satellite subscription. ABS and Solar needs to fix their egos or else both parties might lose huge amounts of money, subscribers and content which is a must for cable or satellite tv.
Besides, there is League Pass which is cheaper and easy to install than switching to Cignal. All they need is their mobile devices and laptops to watch games, that’s all.
And since this issue broke out, ang S+A HD ay ni-reformat na bilang isang HD channel na nagsisimulcast ng mismong S+A
Question is, is S+A HD no longer a 24/7 channel since they carried over Balls HD’s programming in the past?
What I know is that S+A HD is separated from the main feed (S+A) though they air almost the same programs, the HD feed air exclusive telecast.
Anyone who has S+A HD right now should perhaps tune in at around 1 a.m. to see the difference.
TV5 will air Smackdown Live this Sunday, they might probably air this week’s episode on that day. In a press release made by both WWE and TV5, this week’s episode that will telecast on Sunday will be in its full 2 hour glory but on the following Sundays, it will air a condensed 1 hour telecast which is a little bit disappointing because some fans wanted the full telecast and not the one with too many cuts well at least it will not be tagalize (Thank God).
Considering that they still air movies on vacant hours, this is not a good idea. Andami na ngang bakanteng slots gagawin pang isang oras lang. Sa AksyonTV nga puro TV shopping at Tagalized action programs na lang ang ineere nila pag weekends. TV5 should’ve done the smart idea and dump WWE to AksyonTV instead, if HYPER is not up to it at the moment, then those one-hour condensed shows go to TV5. Put it on AksyonTV if I were them.
Well it’s a matter of if and when Hyper would actually get the live versions of those WWE shows. If they actually announce said merger I think your suggestion of airing it on AksyonTV would likely get taken seriously as their have been reports of it being shown to all TV5-affiliated channels.
With AksyonTV a virtual non-factor TV5 should really focus on resuscitating that channel. Along with signal improvements, adding programs and changing its focus is must now. At this point AksyonTV is known more as an S+A-like channel than a news channel, but with too many hours committed to TV shopping, no one will care about it.
I am just saying channel 5 did aired WWE last Sunday on TV5 but incase of Fox PH will renew for rights to air WWE on ABSCBN and Fox PH Lastly TV5 Hyper Aksyon S&A Fox Sports PH and Fox PH will air WWE anytime
Apparently WWE and TV5 just inked a new deal. However, this is only a test broadcast to see if TV5 has the ability to carry pro wrestling on a near-daily basis (WWE seems to know about TV5’s recent financial issues). Right now they’re only airing SmackDown. \
And please, try to make your comments readable. As it stands, your comment has poor grammar written all over it, which has potential for spam. Next time, don’t write like a four-year-old.
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