Game 5 yields top-notch TV ratings

SanMig Super Coffee not only made history by clinching the Grand Slam on Wednesday night, but also helpted TV5 secure high viewership ratings.

Game 5 of the PBA PLDT Home Telpad Governors' Cup match between the Mixers and the Rain or Shine Elastopainters yielded a 34% audience share in the National Urban TV Audience Measurement (NUTAM) from 8-1130pm slot. It averaged over 4 million viewers or a 9.5% AMR.

At its peak, Game 5 yielded a 56.8% audience share, with 5.7 million viewers or 13.3% AMR. Such ratings allowed it to be better than some of the primetime soaps on the other networks.

Sports5 Head Chot Reyes remarked that this is a perfect ending to TV5's coverage of the PBA this season, reflecting how much Filipinos love the PBA with this tightly-contested finals matchup.

Gate attendance also reflected the hype, with 23,234 fans witnessing the game at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.

TV5 secures rights to 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament

After bringing in the biggest one-game sporting spectacle in the United States with Super Bowl XLVIII, Sports5 has now secured the rights to arguably the best knockout tournament in the US, the NCAA Tournament.

TV5, along with Aksyon TV, Hyper and Cignal PPV, will be showing select NCAA Tournament matches, from the opening round until the NCAA Title Game, which will be held inside the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

According to Sports5 Head (and more recognized as the SMART-Gilas Pilipinas head coach) Chot Reyes, “The airing of March Madness further solidifies TV5 as the leader in providing the biggest sports event to Filipinos, truly bringing to the Filipino public sports that matter. Our basketball-crazed nation will surely get wild watching this electrifying basketball event. Imagine the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4, and the NCAA Championship game live on free TV! I don't think this has ever happened before in local television history.”

The past few years has seen the tournament being shown on Basketball TV, but it is hard to recall the tournament being shown on local free TV.

The tournament is expected to showcase 68 of the best collegiate squads from all over the United States, as picked by a Selection Committee. In a bracket-style knockout format, the 68 will be whittled down to 64 (through what is called the First Four), then it will be cut down into 32, then to the Sweet 16 (which means you get to play a second weekend) and then the Elite Eight. The winners will be in the Final Four.

We can expect drama like nothing else in sports, from buzzer-beaters to highlight-worthy plays, to favorites and of course, the Cinderellas. Many of the current and future NBA stars first carve their basketball legacy in front of fans in this tournament, like Stephen Curry, Derrick Rose and Kemba Walker. Of course, the much-hyped bumper crop of NBA draft prospects dot the field, like Kansas' Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins, as well as Duke's Jabari Parker.

Stay tuned for more details for this event.

Still lost or confused with PBA on your tv?

Hopefully, this matrix serves as a guide to watching the PBA. As what the #FromTheStands people say, if you can watch it live, do so.

Feeding Football to the Masses

Given the captivation Filipinos have for football as of late, what exactly is the next step to get people to be more interested in football?




The key would be to educate them about the game. Best way to do that? Well, that is to get them to watch more football. The more they watch, the more they get to learn. Add to that, educating them about the basics of the game, and it would be a fine way of having the sport inculcated on their minds.

What are the advantages of football as a television sport? For starters, it has fixed time limit. The game is 90 minutes long. You will have to incorporate extra time, which will not exceed ten minutes if you combine both the first half and the second half. Halftime can be short, plus a quick pregame and postgame and voila, it's pretty much limited to a couple of hours. In addition, there is no interruptions, so companies will have to be creative with regards to advertising (thus the long pregame for the Azkal matches just to put in the commercials). Compare that to baseball, who game is at the crossroads due to its length. With basketball, there is the break in play for timeouts that might be excruciatingly long, especially if it is a highly marketable match-up (i.e. Ateneo vs La Salle)

The idea for this post stems from this recent plug of TV5, through its sports network AkTV (IBC-13):

They are to be showing Barclays English Premier League and Bundesliga games on free television. Perusing through their calendar, they are to commence with the Bayern Munich vs Borussia M'gladbach game on Monday, August 8.Their first EPL match is Liverpool vs Sunderland on Sunday, August 14.

Although it is not live, (the BM vs BM actually commences on August 7, 1130pm and LFC vs Sun actually starts 10pm of August 13) the idea of showing top quality football on local television (not just cable) is a great way of showcasing the sport to people who not necessarily can watch the event. ABS-CBN also did that with its football coverage (via Studio23). Now, if we can get local football to be shown live, is going to be the next step. Getting more people involved with the sport means people become more aware and people become smarter and better in tune with the game.