Not Dead Yet: ATC @ IBC Returns from Long Hiatus

Former Swiss ambassador to the Philippines Raoul Imbach will try his hand at hosting on the ATC @ IBC-produced show ‘An Evening with Raoul’. (Photo credit: The Manila Times)

It looks like the ATC @ IBC block is going back to business, sort of.

The Asian Television Content Corporation (via their newly established Facebook page) announced a pair of programs that will air on IBC-13 starting this July. First on the bucket list is a talk show called ‘An Evening with Raoul’, which will air beginning this Saturday at 10:00 p.m.

The Raoul in ‘An Evening to Raoul’ refers to former Swiss ambassador to the Philippines Raoul Imbach, who is also an avid singer. He will bring some special guests who will primarily share with him their common passions.

ATC @ IBC will also air the 2017 Boracay Latin Dance Festival. The tape-delayed event will air on July 22 at 9:00 p.m.

The last time ATC was active on IBC-13 was when it aired games of the PBA D-League, NAASCU and the UCBL between 2015 and mid-2016. Previous to that were a slate of programs that included two telenovelas, some documentary programs and even ONE FC.

Unfortunately, IBC-13’s continuously poor state was too much for ATC to overcome, and the company seem destined to fold. Considering that their website was shut down and their original Facebook page no longer posts new content, liquidation of assets should have been the solution for the beleaguered company.

But with these recent developments, it appears that ATC’s presumptive demise was only premature. Then again, the slow snail-like privatization process of IBC-13 will once again come to play here, and the short-term benefits of ATC’s reentry may not be enough to give the perpetually moribund network a much-needed shot in the arm.

If ATC fails anew, it will not be surprising to see IBC-13 go back to airing unlimited hours’ worth of TV Shop Philippines and EZ Shop plus religious and cockfighting programs. For now, though, enjoy this low-key comeback while it lasts.

Underrated College Basketball Leagues Try to Etch Footprints on Philippine TV

The 2016 NAASCU basketball tournament is just one of three under-the-radar collegiate basketball competitions that received ample airtime on television this year. (Photo credit: Philippine Daily Inquirer)

The UAAP and the NCAA are not the only collegiate basketball tournaments that are making hoop fans jump for joy.

This year, three other college basketball tournaments are getting their much-needed due by way of television exposure. They are:

• NAASCU (National Athletic Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities)
• CESAFI (Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc.)
• UCBL (Universities and Colleges Basketball League)

The NAASCU is the third most popular collegiate sports league in the country behind the UAAP and the NCAA. The league is also the biggest membership-wise among the three, with a total of 14 member schools.

This year, the NAASCU men’s basketball tournament was televised via Solar Sports and Basketball TV, with the finals of the men’s, women’s and juniors tournaments also airing on the said networks. It marked the first time that the whole NAASCU tournament was aired on television; previous coverors in IBC-13 and Net 25 aired a select amount of games, with the latter focusing in particular on the Iglesia ni Cristo-owned New Era University teams.

The CESAFI, on the other hand, is the top collegiate sports league in the Visayas. Although the CESAFI is not as well-recognized as its Metro Manila counterparts, it nevertheless carved its own niche in the Filipino hoops scene by producing stars such as current Ginebra big man Greg Slaughter and San Miguel center June Mar Fajardo.

The 12-member CESAFI currently airs its basketball tournament on AksyonTV, and is produced by VIVA Sports. Previously, the games were aired on IBC-13.

And speaking of IBC-13, a new league began to sprout on the said channel. That league, the UCBL, is exclusively a basketball-only league unlike its fellow contemporaries, with seven schools from all over Luzon participating.

The UCBL games are produced by the Asian Television Content Corporation, the same outfit that produced the NAASCU and the PBA D-League on IBC-13. The deal to air the games was set a month ago, even as the network continues its privatization process.

Indeed, college basketball in the Philippines is on the upswing. Although the UAAP and the NCAA continue to be the darlings of the sport, the less heralded trio in the NAASCU, CESAFI and UCBL now try to find their own niche, and this should benefit the game of basketball as a whole in the country.