Parallel broadcast, new timeslot for PBA?

MANILA, Philippines – The PBA Board of Governors will convene tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon to discuss the new proposal submitted last week by their broadcast partner Sports5.

Under the latest proposal, Sports5 will be airing all the games on both TV5 and its news and sports channel Aksyon TV on the UHF band but asked the league to re-construct the scheduling of games to fit in to the station’s available airtime.

Sports5, which has successfully helped the league reached new heights in terms of TV ratings through its creative production and marketing, is pushing for an earlier timeslot on Sundays and a 30-minute delay of tip-off on weeknights. (read also: The PBA rises again)

The Sunday schedule, if approved by the league board, will have the first game start at 2:30 pm instead of the traditional 4 pm schedule while the main game will tip-off at 4:45 p.m. as opposed to the current 6:30 pm set-up.

TV5 will air both games live with a parallel broadcast over Aksyon TV channel 41 (Channel 29 for Cebu and Davao).

The weekdays – Wednesday and Friday – will have the first game at 5:45 pm and the second game at 8 pm in contrast to the original 5:15 pm and 7:45 pm tip-offs.  Both games will be televised live on Aksyon TV while TV5 will air the second game live on primetime and the first game on a slightly delayed basis at 10:30 pm on the same day.

The Saturday schedule [if the league will have a double-header) will follow the Sunday schedule with TV5 showing the second game live and the first game again on a slightly delayed basis at 10:30 pm.

“Let’s wait and see. I will not preempt our governors,” PBA Commissioner Chito Salud told Philstar.com in a text message late Wednesday.

The TV partnership, which is in the second of a five-year deal, has encountered problems when Sports5 decided not to renew its block time agreement with the government-owned station IBC-13 which will be privatized soon.

The PBA Board of Governors have earlier rejected a proposal by Sports5 now headed by Chot Reyes to air the games live on Aksyon TV with only the second game to be aired live on TV5 under the existing schedule of the league.

Reyes, who is also the head coach of the Gilas Pilipinas, had earlier stressed that Aksyon TV is undergoing improvements as far as signal reach is concern and vowed that by the time PBA will resume with the season-ending Governors’ Cup in August, the UHF free-to-air channel of Sports5 will have a wider reach than IBC-13.

UFL and NCAA, the other sports properties of TV5, have been airing on Aksyon TV since the block time deal with IBC-13 expired at the end of May.