PBA charts exciting course with AKTV

MANILA, Philippines -  No less than PBA commissioner Chito Salud recently gave his thumbs-up in rating the progress of AKTV as the league’s TV, radio and marketing partner. Now on its second year in the saddle, AKTV has even bigger plans to deliver a more resounding quality coverage that should boost audience ratings further.

“It’s all about getting the fans involved,” said Dong Capinpuyan, Sports 5 head of production. “Our approach is fan-related. The concept of naming team tribes is to bring fans closer to what’s going on in the league. Our role in media is to engage the fans. That’s why we’re encouraging all talents to use multi-media platforms so they, too, can relate closely with the fans. We’re excited about this interaction.”

TV5 president/CEO Ray Espinosa, executive vice president/COO Bobby Barreiro and sports director Vitto Lazatin are giving their all-out support to AKTV’s efforts in producing an exciting coverage. Backing up Capinpuyan are Sports 5 supervising producer Russell Torres, Sports 5 production unit manager Diana Garcia and producer Julius Melo.

Last season, AKTV experimented with a studio show to complement the panel commentary for every game. The show employed a dynamic interactive format that connected fans to the PBA in a highly entertaining fashion. The positive feedback encouraged AKTV to embellish the program with more features.

“Our direction is to eventually go HD and that’s coming soon,” said Capinpuyan. “At the moment, we’re developing more segments for our studio show because fans really like the interactive format. We’re producing mini-documentaries, features and skits. It’ll be more entertaining and more informative. Like before, we’ll rotate our talents for the studio show with our usual suspects Mico Halili, Benjie Paras, Jason Webb and Aaron Atayde. For the opening, we tapped Mico, Jason and Benjie for the before, after and halftime show inside the Coliseum. Again, this was our way of connecting closely with the fans.”

Salud said he couldn’t be happier with the way the partnership has evolved. “It’s essential that the games are vividly shown on TV and described with clarity on radio,” he said. “So far, the coverage has been excellent. And we expect it to be even more fan engaging.”

Capinpuyan said former MVP Kenneth Duremdes has been added to the cast of analysts for the TV coverage with Jerry Codiñera and Frankie Lim now undergoing training. Other TV panelists are Halili, Webb, Jojo Lastimosa, Magoo Marjon, Rado Dimalibot, Charlie Cuna, Dominic Uy, James Velasquez, Nico Ramos and Quinito Henson. Courtside reporters are Jessica Mendoza, Sel Guevarra and Erika Padilla. On radio are Benjie Santiago, Dennis Principe, Snow Badua, Al Mendoza, Zaldy Perez and Chiqui Reyes.

For yesterday’s opening show, producer Mart Miranda staged a breathtaking spectacle. Salbakuta rapped to introduce the teams using a composition based on the tribal names. For the national anthem, it was music only with 10 PBA fans of the different teams bringing in the flag. For the invocation, there was a special PBA prayer read out followed by the singing of lines from ‘The Prayer’ performed by Shanti Gleason who’s only 11 years old. Shanti performed in ‘The King and I.’ She was joined by 100 candle-bearing PBA fans.

The light-and-sound show was enhanced by special 3D effects, videos and a performance by Douglas Nieras’ Powerdance. Bayani Agbayani and Tuesday Vargas hosted the 50-minute program.

In a meeting with AKTV producers and talents at the PBA office last Thursday, Salud reiterated his trust and confidence in the way the games are covered. “I give total leeway to the announcers in disagreeing with calls but of course, they better be right or else they’ll be summoned instead of the referees,” said Salud half-jokingly. “I believe in establishing credibility of our coverage team and if a referee makes a mistake, there should be no cover-up. However, it goes without saying that the coverage team must know the rules inside out.”

Salud said he will issue a memorandum to players instructing them to respect requests for TV interviews before and after a game and at halftime. He will also study a proposal to “mike” coaches on condition there is no live transmission and the remarks are edited for airing without prejudice to a team or the coach. Salud said coaches will be consulted on the proposal.

Salud said the video review of a last-touch situation or whether a shot was a two or three-pointer will continue in the last two minutes. Buzzer-beaters are reviewed on video replay at the end of every period. However, judgment calls on goaltending and violations such as three-second camping or traveling are not subject to video review even in the last two minutes.  

Salud said Dubai may host games in the Commissioner’s Cup and announced that Cebu, Legazpi, Tacloban and Digos are contenders to host the All-Star Weekend on May 1-6. “We’re forgoing with the North and South alternate hosting system and opening it up to the best bidder,” he said. “We’re also studying which format is more competitive for the All-Star Game – North against South or Rookies, Sophomores and Juniors against the Veterans.”