"HINDI lang iniwan sa ere - nawala sa ere."
This was how veteran television personality and former PBA commentator Chino Trinidad lamented the sudden cancellation of the A2Z's free-to-air broadcast of its PBA games.
Just last October, the PBA's official coveror TV5 moved the free-to-air broadcast of the games to the UHF-based A2Z channel to accomodate more blocktime shows from disenfranchised network ABS-CBN.
READ PBA live broadcast on free television moved from TV5 to A2Z
But in a statement released last week, A2Z said it is dropping the broadcast of PBA games to focus more on entertainment shows from ABS-CBN, a blocktimer like the PBA, in its primetime slot.
Taking the usual slot of the PBA will be TV Patrol at 6:30 PM, FPJ's Batang Quiapo (8 PM), Linlang: The Teleserye Version (8:45 PM) Can't Buy me Love (9:30 PM) and F4 Thailnd: Boys Over Flowers (10:15 PM).
The former PBL commissioner said that this development is a direct slap to the face of the PBA, which for so long is considered the premiere sports league in the country.
"The PBA doesn't deserve to be treated this way. You're the top basketball league in the country yet you are nowhere to be found," he said. "Wala ka nang viewers, mababa na nga viewership mo, tapos hindi pa alam kung saan ka papanoorin.
"Four months ago, ang lakas ng PBA, sabi nila (A2Z), ngayon biglang pinull nila yung plug," added the son of sports columnist Recah Trinidad. "Sana man lang pinatapos muna ang finals bago tsinugi ang live coverage ng PBA."
TV5 drops PBA from program
TV5, which for years now has held the broadcast rights to the games, no longer carries the PBA in its main free-to-air channel, broadcasting the games instead in its cable channel PBA Rush and online through the Pilipinas Live app.
Curiously, the league games are also not carried by TV5-owned cable channel One Sports, which has a wide presence in both cable and digibox markets.
Before A2Z pulled the plug on its PBA broadcast, TV5 and the PBA announced that the games will likewise be broadcast on RPTV, formerly Channel 9 which is now operated by TV5 after CNN Philippines went off the air.
League sources said RPTV has a wider reach than A2Z and the deal with the latter would've been discountinued anyway by next month.
"There's no point maintaining two free-to-air channels for the PBA," said a league insider. "Magsa-suffer lang ang ratings ng dalawang channels."
Another source bared that RPTV will soon turn into a veritable PBA channel, with the primetime slots from 4:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. to be filled coverage of PBA, D-League and 3x3 games as well as PBA Esports.
One league official who requested anomymity said one league game lured 2.5 million viewers at the onset of the RPTV broadcast.
Trinidad, however, played down the move to RPTV, saying the free-to-air channel caters mainly to the A-B crowd and its broadcast of the PBA games wasn't as publicized as the transfer to A2Z.
Disenfranchised fans
The constant movements, he lamented, leave a lot of fans confused and disenfranchised.
He added the ratings being cited by the league are miniscule compared to those in the heyday of the league in the nineties, when PBA Sunday games used to match, if not exceed, the 16 percent rating of Channel 2's The Sharon Cuneta Show.
Trinidad reiterated that even in this age of digital media, television can still reach the most number of Filipinos.
"Mahalaga pa rin ang TV. The Philippines is still a television country and 75% of its population still relies on television," he said, citing a report he gathered from the Department of Information and Communications Technology and the National Telecommunications Commission.
"Ilan sa mga Pilipino ang walang data at Wi-Fi, hindi manonood ng matagalan sa online yan, manghihinayang sa data 'yan," added Trinidad while stressing that majority of PBA fans still belong to the CDE crowd.
Trinidad also emphasized that online streaming will not be sufficient to help in improving the popularity of the PBA, which he said has been weighed down by different issues that have been hounding the league.
"You think you can survive solely sa social media? Dun ka nga bina-bash eh. Stable and reliable source of information of news, entertainment and sports pa rin ang TV - it is readily free," Trinidad said.
"Kaya nga to free-to-air television. Let's give the fans that convenience," he continued. "Dati ang PBA matik yan, channel 4, RPN 9, TV5, ngayon wala. Saan?"
"Ang PBA ngayon parang bola sa TV status nya, patalbog-talbog, palipat-lipat ng kamay. Nakakaawa itong nangyari sa ligang mahal nating lahat."
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