New dawn for Solar Sports

It’s a brand-new ball game for the Solar Sports TV network which will be revitalized, reformatted and restructured to become a more dominant force in media starting Oct. 1.

Last Monday night, Solar’s bigwigs – chairman William Tieng, president Wilson Tieng, chief operating officer Peter Chanliong and vice president for finance Ronald Tieng – hosted a bash to launch "the dawning of a new era" at the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel in Makati.

The ballroom was packed and vice president for marketing Jude Turcuato said the attendance was beyond expectations. Efren (Bata) Reyes, Django Bustamante, Biboy Rivera, Marlon Manalo, Putch Puyat, Tagbilaran City Mayor Dan Neri Lim, Tony Aldeguer, Rey (Boom Boom) Bautista, A. J. Banal, Mark Jason Melligen, Allan Caidic, Chito Loyzaga, Raymund Yu, Jorge Gallent, Eric Arejola, Jude Roque, Ramon Oben, Chino Trinidad, Romel Adducul, Andy Jao and Rey Gamboa were among the guests who celebrated a birth and a rebirth.

Solar Sports will unveil a 24/7 basketball channel called Basketball TV or BTV at the stroke of midnight on Oct. 1. It will be on Skycable’s and Homecable’s Channel 35 where Sports Plus used to air. All other Solar Sports programs will be on a reinvigorated Channel 34. So for sports fans, the remote surfing will be limited to just two side-by-side channels.

The transformation will also mean beefing up Solar’s sales teams, now split into separate profit centers for programs on BTV, Channel 34 and RPN-9. Accountabilities will be distinct and the new set-up encourages competition even among the Solar teams.

"We’re very excited about this development," said Turcuato. "Through BTV, we’ll be able to sustain the popularity of basketball on a 24.7 basis. We’ll have shows exclusive to Solar Sports and RPN-9 as well. And we’re also looking at the possibility of airing specific sports events on NBN, QTV and IBC."

Additionally, Turcuato said Solar will join forces with NBN in airing the Doha Asian Games in December. NBN is committing four to six hours of air time a day for the Asian Games while Solar will likely allot about four hours more than that.

BTV will feature a mix of international and local basketball programs such as the National Basketball Association (NBA), the US NCAA, the various FIBA tournaments, the Euroleague and the Philippine collegiate Champions League.

NBA executive Chris Chiu flew in from Hong Kong to attend last Monday’s affair and said with over 200 games in Solar Sports’ calendar every season, no other broadcast partner airs as many games anywhere in the world. Now on its fifth year of partnership with the NBA, Solar Sports is set to show its 1,000 NBA game this season.

Turcuato said BTV won’t only show eight live NBA games a week from the start of the regular season to the second round of the playoffs but also Hardwood Classics, All-Access, NBA Action, NBA Jam, the Greatest Games, NBA Live, NBA Fantasy Hoops and NBA Europe Live. The NBA Finals will be telecast live on RPN-9 with replays on BTV.

On the US NCAA, Solar Sports will bring back the March Madness road to the finals and introduce games in the highly-popular Pacific-10 Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference.

There will be three FIBA tournaments next year to be covered by BTV – the Continental Championships of the Americas, Asia and Europe. The Philippines is expected to participate in the FIBA-Asia qualifiers for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The Euroleague is the continent’s top hoops tournament and version of the NBA, featuring 24 teams in three groups.

Games in the Philippine collegiate Champions League will air from Oct. 3 to 14. The format is identical with the March Madness in that every game is do-or-die. The 16 top varsity teams from all over the country will slug it out in a knockout competition until only one is left standing.

BTV will also follow the Philippine cage team’s progress in 2007.

As for the Solar Sports channel, Turcuato said local shows will be produced to take over the prime time 9-10 p.m. slot. One program is called "Hoop Nation" hosted by Alex Compton and Cesca Litton. The one-hour news magazine show will take up everything basketball and bring Compton to various gyms and schools to preach the gospel of hoops. Another program is called "Undisputed" with Ronnie Ricketts and Gretchen Manalad talking all about boxing. Still another program is the televised version of the Sports Radio talk show, now on its fifth year, with Patricia Hizon, Robbie Puno and Turcuato. "Rookie Manual," where Reema Chanco explores new and obscure sports, will continue.

The growing nightly habit of watching news and highlights on the Sports Desk will be enhanced as Vito Lazatin, Chanco and Litton are joined by fresh recruit Mark Zembrano with Mica Abesamis and Meghan Zaragoza as roving reporters.

Everything is in place for Solar’s surge to prominence in TV sports.