EDITORIAL - Cavalcade of commercials, interrupted sometimes by boxing

All the giant television networks in the country jointly announced on Thursday that they would be airing the Manny Pacquiao - Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight "live" from Las Vegas on May 3, Philippine time. But before those who cannot afford the pay-per-view on cable tv or the various meal-and-drink packages offered by restaurants and had to depend on free tv for all their past Pacquiao fights start jumping with joy, they better think again.

All that the announcement really means is that, for this particular fight, there will be more choices of stations available to free tv watchers. Therefore, if you are an avid follower of ABS-CBN, or GMA7, or TV5, or Solar Sports, there will be no need for you to touch that dial or that remote because your favorite channel will be airing the fight starting at 10 a.m. on the scheduled date.

What was not mentioned in the announcement is this little thing called commercials. Commercials make for the critical difference between live coverage as generally understood by most people, and "live coverage" as actually seen on free tv. "Live coverage" as actually seen on free tv pertains only to the fact that what you see was recorded live as it happened but aired "slightly delayed" to allow for the insertion of commercials.

However, each individual person has to take great liberties with his personal understanding of the phrase "slightly delayed" because understanding it may not actually depend on its meaning but on the capacity to be patient of that individual person. And surely, an individual person has to be extremely patient in order to deal with the "slightly delayed" live telecast of the fight that the whole world has long awaited.

To those who have not had the chance to watch a "slightly delayed" live telecast of a Pacquiao fight on free tv, we can never have the words to make you even nearly understand what it is like to go through the experience. But to give you an idea of what it is like, allow us to quote our former editor-in-chief Juanito Jabat whose way with words is matched only by his way with humor. Mr. Jabat described it as "a cavalcade of commercials interrupted sometimes by boxing."

So there. And if you still do not get it, well you can always watch it as announced and find out for yourself. This is, of course, not intended to disparage a wonderful thing. It is hard to imagine the giant networks, who used to go at each other's throats in bitter competition, coming together to put this fight to as wide an audience as possible.

But since this is a mega fight that is taking mega bucks to promote, it follows that it is also going to take mega bucks to bring over even if on a "slightly delayed" basis. Nothing is really free in this world. And if it requires a huge investment for anything to happen, better believe there is going to be a huge tradeoff somewhere. So, better be prepared for a cavalcade of commercials that will be interrupted sometimes by boxing, unless you can afford the other choices.