EXPECT the upcoming NCAA men’s basketball tournament to finally reach a wider television audience as TV5 is set to telecast more games of Season 90 set to unfold on June 28.
Unlike last year when most of the matches were shown on AksyonTV that has drawn flak for its limited reach and poor signal, the league’s television partner Sports5 announced that it will now air more games on the free channel TV5, which also broadcasts the PBA games.
“We’re going to make the NCAA available to a very huge audience with great reach,” Sports5 head Chot Reyes said. “We’ve been able to deliver great ratings for the PBA, record-breaking television ratings, so hopefully we are able to replicate that with the NCAA.”
TV5 hit a record average of almost 5.4 million viewers (53.7 percent audience share in the National Urban TV Audience Measurement) at the peak of Game Six of the Philippine Cup Finals between San Mig Coffee and Rain or Shine last February.
Now, Sports5 hopes to do the same for the country’s oldest collegiate league.
Under the new setup, all games will be telecast live, with the 2 p.m. matches on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to shown on AksyonTV, and the 4 p.m. games on M-W-F seen on both TV5 and AksyonTV.
The lone 2:30 p.m. Saturday games will also be simulcast live on both TV5 and Aksyon TV.
The first week of competition follows the same setup, but with earlier timeslots. The first games on July 2 and 4 are set at 12 noon, while the second games are slated at 2 p.m.
“Hopefully this will lead to a slam-bang record-breaking season,” said Reyes, who added the TV partner will also telecast the volleyball and cheerleading competitions, among others.
AksyonTV is on UHF free TV channel 41 in Metro Manila, and channel 29 in Cebu and Davao; and also on cable: channel 59 on SkyCable, channel 78 on Destiny Cable, and channel 1 on Cignal.
Livestreaming is also available at ncaa.sports5.ph.