Salud sees big numbers in gate, TV viewership

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Basketball Association has high hopes it will enjoy as much success as it did in the last conference as the season-ending Governors Cup enters its semifinal phase.

PBA commissioner Chito Salud said they have good reasons to expect huge gate receipts and giant TV viewership and ratings.

Salud said these are the same reasons that made the recent Commissioner’s Cup a smash hit.

In terms of TV viewership and ratings, the second conference hit an eight-year high for the league.

Figures provided to the PBA Commissioner’s Office by broadcast partner AKTV showed that the second conference was the highest-rated conference in terms of audience share (based on actual TV sets in use during the survey period) and AMR (average per minute rating) since 2004.

The Commissioner’s Cup showed a 10.3 percent share and an AMR of 2.8. This beats the 9.3 percent audience share during the 2005 Philippine Cup and the 2.6 AMR last reached during the 2008 Fiesta Cup.

B-Meg and Talk n Text figuring in a epic best-of-seven title showdown that reached the distance provided the fitting climax in the well-fought tourney.

At one point during the overtime period of Game Seven, there were more than four million viewers tuned in to AKTV, for an AMR of 9.7 and a 27.4 percent audience share, beating the big three of GMA-7 (24), ABS-CBN (19) and AKTV parent network ABC-5 (17) in Mega Manila. 

Salud attributes the ratings rise to three factors.

“I feel the fans appreciate the direction of our officiating philosophy and the three-conference format, which shortens each tournament and makes each game seem like a playoff game even during the elimination round.

“I also feel that the arrival of a solid rookie class, exciting imports, and a rededication of our players to the game and their fans has restored much of the faith in the PBA as an entertainment and sports marketing platform.

 “And lastly, I wish to commend the efforts of our broadcast partners in AKTV to make the coverage fresher, more fan-friendly and interactive, and the TV viewers have responded by making the PBA part of their regular watching habits anew.”

The numbers also show that in its first two conferences, viewership on AKTV was much more than the last three airing networks. In the finals alone, AKTV averaged 1.535M viewers in each minute, compared to 945K for Studio 23, 719K on ABC-5 and 258K on RPN-9.

While Barangay Ginebra remains the top draw in terms of ratings, the B-Meg Llamados and surprisingly, the Powerade Tigers have shown a tremendous upswing in their average viewership, the latter perhaps due to their Cinderella run during the last Philippine Cup.