PBA to penalize Solar Sports anew due to delayed coverage

source: Rey Joble | gmanews.tv

Barely a week since moving to a new channel, the Philippine Basketball Association has encountered early problems on its coverage.

The latest is the game between Powerade and Alaska, which was brought on the air on a delayed basis, drawing some concerns from some of the team and league officials and the public.

It was the second straight time Studio 23 suffered coverage problems over the airing of PBA games. In the league’s opening game in Laoag City last Friday, a portion of the early part of the game between Ginebra and Meralco wasn’t shown. The game went back on air with nearly five minutes gone in the match, owing to satellite feed problem.

The first game of the scheduled double header Wednesday was shown on a slightly delayed basis, this after the UAAP women’s finals match between La Salle and University of Santo Tomas was played in a five-setter. Studio 23 owns the right to produce and broadcast the games of the UAAP.

The PBA started at around 5:39 p.m. with the Aces winning over the Tigers, 106-82. Their game at The Astrodome was already finished, but the airing of the match was still on going with still more than eight minutes left.

Solar Sports is the official coveror of the PBA, but with SolarTV reformatting its VHF Channel 9, the television outfit was forced to look for other networks where they can show the games.

Solar Sports entered into a block time agreement with Studio 23, a UHF (ultra high frequency) channel, and the transfer of the games’ coverage was approved by the PBA.

But PBA commissioner Atty. Chito Salud showed his displeasure on how the coverage has been treated this early and disclosed that Solar Sports will be penalized.

Under our contract, failure in part to air the games live equates to a penalty," said Salud.

Solar Sports was also meted a fine several months back for its failure to air several portions of the game last year.

The PBA penalized Solar Sports when the coveror failed to air parts of the game between Meralco and Talk N Text on Oct. 15, 2010. The league slapped its coveror a P3-million penalty.

“We were able to penalize them before, but not everything was in form of cash. Some of them were through exchange deals like advertisements," said Salud after Solar Sports made a compromised agreement with the league.

But Solar Sports, according to Salud, is liable to pay another P3-million for its failure to air the game live.

"This thing is not insurmountable and in fact can be avoided. They (Solar) can ask for ports adjustment or we can ask for adjustment in our own schedule, pwede naman kaming magpa-air ng 5:30 p.m. I asked them na baka magka-overlap, but they assured us na walang problema," said Salud.

"I would like to inform everyone that the contract between Solar Sports and the PBA is the law and we will continuously impose that," added Salud.

Solar Sports is under contract with the PBA as its official coveror until August of this year.

Solar Sports, through Tek Major, vice president for marketing services, said they cannot make an explanation regarding this latest problem at this time.

“We will look into the problem first and fix it right away," Major told GMA News in a telephone interview.

TV coverage a concern in the near future

Pato Gregorio, board representative of Talk N Text in the PBA, is one of those who showed concern regarding the future of the league’s coverage.

“We are surprised why this is happening. We will request Commissioner Chito to look into this development," Gregorio said in a text message.

“I don’t know how they will do it, but they have to do something," said Raymond Yu, co-team owner of Rain or Shine in a telephone interview. “Kung ikaw ang may-ari ng team, parang ayaw mo na tuloy na maglaro ka ng first game dahil may risk na hindi ka mapapakita."

A sportswriter who covers the collegiate games regularly also expressed apprehensions regarding the situation of the PBA.

“Block time lang si PBA sa Studio 23 while the network itself produces the airing of the games of the UAAP, so sino sa tingin ninyo priority nila? Ang nangyari pa tuloy nung na-delay na yung PBA game, pati yung mga commercials na hinahabol rin ng mga teams nabawasan dahil they’re in a race against time and tried to catch up na maski sa second game man lang maging live yung coverage," said the sportswriter, who requested anonymity. - GMA News

by Rey Joble | gmanews.tv

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