PBA to Open Season as Scheduled

The Philippine Arena will play host to the Manila Clasico between Ginebra and Magnolia this December 25. It hosted the last three games of the 2017 PBA Governors’ Cup to record crowds. (Photo credit: The Philippine Star)

Good news for PBA fans.

The Philippine Basketball Association will open its new season this Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. It will be highlighted by the customary opening ceremonies and the kickoff game between defending Philippine Cup champion San Miguel Beermen and the Phoenix Fuel Masters.

Opening the new season is important for the league even as it endured the controversy surrounding commissioner Chito Narvasa. Globalport governor Mikee Romero made it clear about the PBA’s importance to the masses.

“Hindi pwedeng mawala ang PBA sa Pilipino, or ang Pilipino mawala sa PBA. That’s why we’re all here. I think we’re a very solid group at this point in time. Come December 17, as what we promised — [one] that did not come from me, [but] from all 12 teams.”

“Any internal problems or whatever that we have, we will deal with it internally, within ourselves, within the 12 of us. We don’t want to elaborate or any more matters. As we told you, this Sunday, what we should be watching are the players, the superstars of PH basketball. 43 years, ang masasabi ko lang, let the games begin.”

The PBA was coming off an otherwise successful 42nd season where the San Miguel Beermen ruled the Philippine and Commissioner’s Cup, and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel won the Governors’ Cup. However, a controversial and disputed trade between the Beermen and Kia Picanto involving consensus top pick Christian Standhardinger led to chaos that took a month to resolve.

The opening of the 43rd PBA season will also benefit official broadcaster ESPN5 as well. Right after the PBA season opener, ESPN5 will premiere ‘SportsCenter Philippines’ as its leadout program, giving the latter a much-needed shot in the arm.

On December 25, the PBA will hold its annual Christmas Day games at the Philippine Arena, highlighted by the ‘Manila Clasico’ between Ginebra and Magnolia Hotshots (formerly the Star Hotshots). The rest of the league’s schedule will see the Philippine Cup last until March, followed by the Commissioner’s Cup from March to June, and the Governors’ Cup from June to September.

Let the games begin. Good luck.

PBA Quarterfinals Scheduling Quirks

Today will mark the start of the PBA Philippine Cup playoff rounds. As is the case the past two seasons, the playoff games will be played on a daily basis up until the Semifinals. However, there are some scheduling quirks which may baffle some viewers.

Tuesday’s doubleheader will have Petron vs. Barako Bull, and Talk N’ Text vs. San Mig Super Coffee. However, the former will not be shown live on TV as AksyonTV is slated to air weekly United Football League doubleheaders. Instead it will shown on a delayed basis over at TV5 after ‘Reaksyon’. The latter will also not be seen on AksyonTV, but will have a live broadcast on TV5.

For Wednesday’s doubleheader featuring Rain or Shine vs. Globalport, and Barangay Ginebra vs. Alaska, the first game will be a live broadcast on AksyonTV and a delayed broadcast on TV5, while the second game will be aired live on both networks. However, there will be no games on Thursday as TV5 is scheduled to air the pilot episode of the weekly drama series ‘Obsession’.

Friday’s doubleheader featuring the four teams that played on Tuesday will follow the same broadcast pattern as Wednesday’s doubleheader. But should both Wednesday doubleheader brackets extend to a do-or-die match, the first game will be shown live on both AksyonTV and TV5, while the second game will be seen only on AksyonTV. Now here’s the dilemma: TV5 does not air the second game on Saturdays, but because ‘What’s Up Doods?’ is presumably cancelled, they may move both ‘SPINNation’ and ‘Pilipinas News Weekend’ to that timeslot to allow the second PBA quarterfinals game to air.

Finally, the Sunday games will have Game 3 of either one or two series that played on Friday, and will be seen on TV5 and AksyonTV. In short, Sports5 is following virtually the same broadcast script that have been followed since the start of the eliminations.

With that, good luck to all the teams in the playoffs, and good luck to all the viewers trying to watch a PBA game on TV.

PBA Games Today on AksyonTV

Sports5‘s job of covering the PBA games just got tougher. Having adjusted to a new broadcast setup, the network announced that the special Thursday doubleheader will only be aired live on AksyonTV, with replays on TV5 later tonight and on Friday afternoon.

The first game will feature the Alaska Aces and the Talk N’ Text Tropang Texters at 5:30 p.m., followed by the much-anticipated matchup between the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and the Globalport Batang Pier at 8:00 p.m. Both games will be played at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The two games were supposed to be played on the normal Friday playdate. But due to the lack of an available venue for tomorrow, the PBA had no choice but to move the doubleheader to Thursday. Unfortunately this is also the day where TV5 teleseryes ‘Positive’ and ‘For Love or Money’ normally air, and with no available options, Sports5 decided to air the games only on AksyonTV. In addition today’s live games will also be streamed through the internet at http://www.interaktv.ph.

In relation to today’s PBA games on AksyonTV, the scheduled United Football League Cup quarterfinal doubleheaders were moved to IBC-13. The two games in Taguig‘s Emperador Stadium will feature Philippine Air Force FC facing against Union Internacional Manila, and Stallion FC versus Pachanga Diliman. This will be the second sports event covered by IBC-13 in cooperation with another broadcast partner since the end of the AKTV era; they aired a replay of the Manny Pacquiao-Brandon Rios fight last Sunday with Solar Sports. The temporary move to Thursday was another highly-criticized move that has affected Sports5’s broadcast relationship with the PBA.

Last season the Manny V. Pangilinan-owned network and the league had an argument over channel assignments after the expiration of Sports5’s blocktime rights with IBC-13. Then two weeks into the new season the network aired only a handful of live games on TV5 because of its loaded primetime lineup, an adjustment made out of necessity.

But in an era of growing cable and internet subscription, Sports5’s moves were needed to push the PBA coverage to a new level. And the PBA allowed this arrangement so that they can be flexible with TV5’s current schedule, even as viewers continue to complain over the new arrangement.

New Schedules for the PBA, UAAP & NCAA

Sports venues like the Mall of Asia Arena lay quiet during the rampage of the Southwest monsoon caused by Typhoon Maring, as the PBA, UAAP and NCAA cancelled the games played from August 19-22.

The past four days have not been kind to Filipino sports fans. The Southwest monsoon and Typhoon Maring brought heavy rains and floods to Metro Manila, causing school and office cancellations. Sporting events were not spared either.

The NCAA postponed two playdates in the ongoing basketball competitions. Instead the August 19 playdate will be played on August 26, while the August 22 playdate will be played on August 29. The August 26 games will feature junior and senior matches pitting Lyceum of the Philippines against San Sebastian College-Recoletos, and De La Salle-College of St. Benilde against the University of Perpetual Help-DALTA. The August 29 games will pit Emilio Aguinaldo College against Mapua Institute of Technology in both the juniors and seniors. In addition, they rescheduled the badminton, swimming and chess competitions for next week.

The UAAP also postponed its basketball competitions during the week. The seniors games for August 21 would have pitted the University of the Philipppines against the University of the East, and Ateneo de Manila University against the University of Sto. Tomas. Likewise the women’s and juniors matches were postponed. In addition, the opening of beach volleyball and badminton was moved to August 31. It is likely the postponed basketball games will be played during the week after the cheerdance competitions.

The PBA, already scrambling to make up for the long break caused by the FIBA Asia Championships, postponed its August 21 playdates pitting the Alaska Aces against the Talk N’ Text Tropang Texters, and Globalport Batang Pier against Barangay Ginebra San Miguel. Instead the league revised its schedule, adding two Tuesday playdates in addition to the Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday games to make up for an already compressed conference schedule. The Alaska-Talk N’ Text game was moved to September 6, while the Globalport-Ginebra match was moved to September 20. In addition, no playdates at Antipolo’s Ynares Center were booked, instead some games will be moved to the Cuneta Astrodome, while one playdate will be held at the PhilSports Arena.

During the postponements, Studio 23 and AksyonTV aired reruns of prior games. However, with the improving weather conditions, it is back to normal for the production crews of both networks. And the fans cannot wait to watch their favorite teams play again after a four-day weather delay.