ABS-CBN to Air NBA Finals Game 7 Live

Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals will indeed air LIVE on ABS-CBN Channel 2, preempting ‘Magandang Buhay’ and the premiere of ‘Kuroko’s Basketball’ season 3. (Promotional photo courtesy of ABS-CBN)

ABS-CBN is finally doing something right for once.

Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals, according to ABS-CBN, will be aired LIVE. But since the game will be held on a Sunday in the United States (Monday in the Philippines), the game time will be at 8:00 a.m. Manila time, an hour earlier than usual.

Circumstances like this warrant a delayed telecast because of the presence of ‘Magandang Buhay’. But with Game 7 of the NBA Finals obviously the most important game of the season, ABS-CBN finally decided to give in to the viewers’ demands.

Thus, ‘Magandang Buhay’, along with the premiere of ‘Kuroko’s Basketball’ season 3, will be preempted for today, and the NBA Finals will air LIVE on Channel 2. It will still be called in-studio by Boom Gonzalez, Ronnie Magsanoc and Benjie Paras, among others, alongside TJ Manotoc on location in Oakland, California.

Basketball TV and NBA Premium TV will also simulcast Game 7 of the Finals with English commentary via ABC in the United States. There will also be a live viewing party at the NBA Cafe in SM Aura, Taguig.

The 2016 NBA Finals pits the Cleveland Cavaliers, led by LeBron James, and the Golden State Warriors, led by Stephen Curry. The Warriors seek to win back-to-back titles and validate their record-breaking 73-win season, while the Cavaliers look to end a 52-year title drought for Cleveland with their first championship.

The Warriors initially led the NBA Finals 3-1. But thanks to a pair of 40-point games by LeBron James, the Cavaliers were able to force a Game 7, and will now try to become the first team in NBA history to win the championship after trailing 3-1.

Replay of Game 7 will be later tonight at 10:30 p.m. on ABS-CBN Sports+Action, with another replay to be aired on an undetermined time tomorrow morning. Basketball TV and NBA Premium TV will re-air Game 7 at 7:00 p.m.

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BTV Robbed by NBA’s Biased Scheduling Assignments

The first week of NBA playoff coverage on Basketball TV will focus on less popular teams like the Raptors and Pacers, rather than the more highly followed ones like the Warriors and Cavaliers. (Photo credit: Solar Entertainment)

The NBA Playoffs have not been kind to Basketball TV these days.

When the NBA released its playoff schedule for Filipino broadcast partners, five things stood out for Basketball TV as far as the first week of coverage is concerned. They are:

1. No assigned game to BTV for April 20, Wednesday. The said date (Manila time) will feature Game 2 of both the Hawks/Celtics and Spurs/Grizzlies series.
2. A combined six appearances in eight playdates for either the Raptors/Pacers or the Heat/Hornets series, with the other two assigned to the Hawks/Celtics series.
3. No Western Conference games, plus the Cavaliers/Pistons series.
4. No doubleheaders.
5. Three games shared with either ABS-CBN or ABS-CBN Sports+Action (Heat/Hornets on April 21, Raptors/Pacers on April 22, Hawks/Celtics on April 23).

This means that viewers on BTV will have to endure watching less popular teams such as the Raptors, Hornets and Pacers on a regular basis rather than the more marquee ones like the Warriors, Spurs and Cavaliers. So much for maintaining balance of coverage.

Even worse for the network is the lack of game coverage on select playdates. That will be the case tomorrow, as the NBA did not assign one game for BTV.

So what was left for BTV to do? They have no choice but to air the postgame edition of NBA Gametime, then replay it over and over again until the next game concludes.

Very unfortunate indeed. And that has been the case for the past few years.

Regardless of the expected negative reaction, it was and always will be the NBA’s decision to assign these games, so there’s no need to complain on it. That said, subscribing to both NBA Premium and Fox Sports Philippines is necessary to everyone who can’t stand BTV’s coverage.

If not, just endure the Taglish coverage of ABS-CBN Sports for this year’s playoffs. Good luck with that.

 

ABS-CBN Goes All Out With Local NBA Commentary

The NBA on ABS-CBN Sports is now in Taglish on a full-time basis.

Since opening week, all NBA games on ABS-CBN and ABS-CBN Sports+Action are called straight from the network’s studios in Quezon City. The commentary of the games are being rotated among its four announcers: Ronnie Magsanoc, Benjie Paras, Boom Gonzales and TJ Manotoc.

It can be recalled that ABS-CBN began to air NBA regular season games with their commentators at the start of this year. Initially the local commentary is exclusive to Channel 2, but come the conference finals, it has been extended to its sister station on Channel 23.

During the previous season’s NBA Finals, however, ABS-CBN elected to keep their local crew at the studio instead of sending them to the United States, presumably to save costs. This seems more logical, as the finals games on the network are now broadcast on a delayed basis due to various programming concerns.

This season, ABS-CBN made the jump towards an all-local NBA coverage for all of its games. The debut of the full-time ‘localized’ NBA coverage took place on opening night last October 28, when Sports+Action aired the Cleveland Cavaliers-Chicago Bulls matchup with commentary from Ronnie Magsanoc and Benjie Paras.

This latest move by ABS-CBN Sports is intended towards attracting a more ‘masa’ audience. But for those disenchanted with this decision, don’t worry, because NBA games on Basketball TV, Fox Sports Asia and NBA Premium TV will still feature commentary from American announcers.

NBA games are currently aired on ABS-CBN Sports+Action every Friday, Sunday and Monday, and on ABS-CBN every Saturday. ABS-CBN Sports will also air a Christmas game and several late-season games if possible.

For more information on the upcoming NBA broadcasts in the Philippines, click on this link.