PBA dual telecast ill-advised?

Two television networks doing a parallel broadcast of the PBA games, in the eyes of RFM big boss Joey Concepcion, has done the league more harm than good as far as its share of audience viewership is concerned.

Concepcion, who once served as PBA chairman, said it’s quite unfortunate that the PBA, in a bid to reinvent itself and regain its stature as the biggest sports and entertainment program in the country, is on a skid.

Under new commissioner Noli Eala, the PBA has installed major reforms starting this year, particularly the ongoing parallel broadcast of the games between NBN-4, the government-owned station, and IBC-13.

The parallel broadcast came to fore after the PBA severed its ties with Viva-Vintage group of Vic del Rosario and Carlos Velez, a long-time partner of the PBA.

After a long, hard battle, which even went beyond the boardroom, the NBN/IBC consortium won the bid to air the games for the next three years. The contract was worth more than P600 million.

"I think Noli Eala is a good commissioner but there’s just a lot of problems today that the PBA faces like the investigation in the Senate on the Fil-Am players. Their coverage with Channels 4 and 13, to my mind, is also a problem because it’s creating so much confusion with the viewers," said Concepcion.

The youthful CEO of the giant food and beverage firm said the PBA, being aired at least three days a week starting at 5 p.m., just couldn’t cope with the soap operas being shown on Channels 2 and 7 in terms of viewership.

"Those are problems. Plus the cost of maintaining a team is very high that it doesn’t make sense to spend P70 million (a year) and get a seven percent audience viewership. That is not acceptable. You have to be way above than that," added Concepcion during the PSA Forum at the Manila Pavilion.

"It’s just a question of how the PBA can transform itself or reinvent itself. I think Noli Eala is doing his job but there are a lot of problems. And there seems to be confusion among the advertisers. But when a team spends around P70 million and the ratings are down to seven percent it’s not good," he added.