These are the sports broadcasting contracts in the Philippines. There are three primary local producers of sport programs in the country: Solar Sports, ABS-CBN and GMA Network, with TV5's AKTV block in IBC a third and new partner from 2011.
Contents
- Basketball
- Boxing
- Football soccer
- Mixed martial arts
- Horse racing
- Volleyball
- Rugby
- Cheerleading
- Other
- American football
- Auto racing
- Baseball
- Golf
- Rugby union
- Tennis
- Other sports
- References
Solar airs its sports programming on VHF Solar TV (now CNN Philippines) and cable channels Solar Sports and Basketball TV. Solar covered the 2008 Summer Olympics at these stations and on UHF SBN on which it airs its ETC (switch control sister station Solar News Channel) RPN 9, RJTV 29 on which it is a block-timer airing 2nd Avenue, BEAM 31 on which it airs its Jack City programming, and on cable channel Jack TV. Solar also enters into a blocktime agreement on GMA Network for selecting boxing matches, notably Manny Pacquiao matches. Solar's flagship sports program is PBA on C/S9, a broadcast of the Philippine Basketball Association games, on which it won the bid over ABS-CBN with a deal of P508 million for the next three years starting 2008.
ABS-CBN airs its sports programming on UHF Studio 23 (now ABS-CBN Sports+Action) and cable channel Balls. It also airs select boxing matches on its flagship station, VHF Channel 2, notably Pacquiao matches before Solar regained the rights. Its flagship broadcast it its airing of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men's basketball tournament; its current contract is worth P75 million for five years which will end in 2009.
Solar also holds the rights to the National Basketball Association on which it sends its own broadcast team for the NBA Finals. The airing of the NBA games caused a stir when Solar withdrew their channels from SkyCable (of which ABS-CBN owns); the NBA games returned to SkyCable subscribers in time for the 2008–09 NBA season via Basketball TV, albeit at an extra cost to subscribers "after clamor for NBA games has just been too high."
Foreign sports other than the NBA are aired, but on cable channels, notably Solar's, ABS-CBN's and the Fox Sports channels (Fox Sports Asia and Star Sports). SkyCable's All Sports Network also airs foreign sports programming, the channel's local feed excludes UFC broadcasts as Balls and Studio 23 (now ABS-CBN Sports+Action) have the national broadcast rights. The brand new Hyper channel also carries both national and international sports programming.
Basketball
Boxing
(*) Even though Pacquiao is under Top Rank, his bouts are aired on GMA and Solar Sports due to his status as a GMA contract artist and under airtime contract with Solar Entertainment Corporation.