CIGNAL TV on Friday clarified it doesn’t own live broadcast rights for the 2026 NBA Finals.
The broadcaster issued a statement following confusion from fans in Game 1 between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs last Wednesday when no live telecast was shown on any of its platforms One Sports, NBA TV Philippines, and the Pilipinas Live app.
Instead, the live broadcast of the ongoing title series is being streamed through Prime Video.
And in lieu of live airing, Cignal is showing primetime replays of the games on its platforms.
“As part of our agreement with the National Basketball Association (NBA), Cignal does not hold the rights to air live coverage of the 2026 NBA Finals, as these were granted exclusively to another global platform,” said Cignal in a statement.
History of live broadcast rights
Cignal secured the rights to live broadcast of NBA games in 2020 after those were previously shown on ABS-CBN, which was forced to shut down its sports channel S+A in the same year.
Cignal then aired its first NBA championship series during the 2020 Finals held inside a bubble in Orlando, Florida. Since then, the finals has been shown through its platforms until this year.
Also this season, streaming platforms such as Prime Video and Disney+ have obtained rights to broadcast NBA games in the Philippines.
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