PBA's coverage suffers big blow; Solar faces possible penalty anew

Is the Philippine Basketball Association going to crack the whip on Solar Entertainment anew? On Wednesday night, the main game featuring the do-or-die quarterfinals match between Ginebra and Rain or Shine was shown and resulted in a very bad reception for most part of the match. The quarterfinals match between Ginebra and Rain or Shine suffered from bad reception from most part of the match, which resulted in an uproar from fans watching in Mega Manila. The game was being aired live on Studio 23. Ivan Chavez, a student who lives in Cuenca, Batangas, couldn’t hide his disappointment after failing to watch the much-awaited game of his favorite team Ginebra. “I was able to watch the first game and saw how Air21 pulled off a dramatic upset over Alaska, so I was expecting a more entertaining second game. Malas lang dahil ang sama ng reception, so nilipat na lang namin sa Capt. Barbel," said Chavez. To find out if there was indeed a reception difficulty in the area or maybe a slight malfunction relating to their TV antenna, Chavez even checked out with some neighbors. It turned out that they also opted to switch channels after experiencing trouble in the coverage feed. Robert Ribon, who lives in Sta. Rosa City, showed his displeasure via Twitter and called the attention of Studio 23 through its Twitter account. “Damn it please, fix Studio 23 immediately. I’m missing probably Ginebra's last game of the conference," said Ribon. “@S23Channel, hey! what's with the signal? labo ng PBA," shouted Jorell Chan of Caloocan City in his Twitter account. Ria Arevalo was also disappointed over how the coverage was handled. “So, nanalo pala Brgy.Ginebra sa second game. Papaano, sa sobrang sagwa/gulo/pangit ng reception ng @S23Channel, nanood na lang ako ng Glee re-run," posted Arevalo on her Twitter. However, Anthony dela Cruz and Jennifer Mendoza, a cable and satellite subscribers, who were watching the game, reported "there were no interruption in the broadcast of the game."

The complaints reached PBA commissioner Atty. Chito Salud, who told GMA News that “he will check on the matter." A day after the poor handling of the coverage, Salud has asked for a formal report from Solar Entertainment regarding the issue. "We will assess the reports which I'm going to receive plus Solar's own before we take action," added Salud. Salud’s special assistant and media bureau chief Willie Marcial said in a text message that there was indeed “technical difficulty in terms of reception in some areas." Solar Entertainment entered into a block time agreement on the coverage of the PBA games with Studio 23 prior to the start of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup. The PBA board agreed after SolarTV reformatted its network outfit from a premier sports entertainment channel to one that caters more to women. Last year, Solar Entertainment was fined P3 million for failure to air several portions of the game between Meralco and Talk N Text on Oct. 15, 2010. And on Feb. 23 this year, Solar Entertainment was slapped a P3-million fine anew after it failed to show the game between Powerade and Alaska live. GMA News tried to contact Solar Entertainment through Tek Major, the vice president for marketing affairs, but she couldn’t be reached. - KY, GMA News