AKTV NCAA coverage draws record viewers

MANILA, Philippines – More college basketball fanatics have been catching up to the NCAA since its transfer to AKTV, the premier sports channel on free TV.

Based on Nielsen TV Audience Measurement, the 88th season of the country’s oldest collegiate league has garnered a 13 percent lead over UAAP in terms of absolute numbers of viewers in the overall national urban scale.

According to data gathered on June 23-Aug. 18, NCAA was generating an average viewership of close to 200,000 in its primetime slot of 4-8 p.m. In mega Manila alone, the NCAA managed to obtain a 56 percent lead generating an average of 120,000 viewers against the 77,000 average viewers over the other collegiate league.

The tightly contested game between the San Beda Red Lions and the University of Perpetual Help Altas registered the highest number of viewers with 374,296 (NUTAM). In one of the current season’s most exciting game conclusions, San Beda guard Baser Amer drilled in 70-foot long shot, sending the game into overtime. The Altas pulled the rug from under the heavily favored Lions and snapped a seven-year drought dating back to 2005.

The opening day game between the Letran Knights and San Sebastian Stags also registered high numbers with 297,460 absolute numbers of viewers (NUTAM). During this game spitfire guard Kevin Alas scored 31 points to carry the Knights to victory.

The start of the three-year partnership between the NCAA and AKTV is proving to be fruitful for the league and for the television partner in its early stages, Sports5 sports manager Vitto Lazatin said.

“The outstanding ratings for this year’s NCAA college basketball tournament prove that more and more sports fans are getting involved in the exciting league action. We only treat this happy development as a challenge to keep delivering the best in college sports through our partnership with the NCAA,” he said.

AKTV is the primetime sports block on IBC 13 where the NCAA games are shown. Sports5, the sports arm of TV5, also airs various sports programs like the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), United Football League (UFL), and Pacific X-Treme Combat.