PBA

Season 47 title card

The **Philippine Basketball Association** (**PBA**) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines composed of twelve company-branded franchised teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia and is the second oldest continuously professional basketball league existing in the world after the NBA, established before the "open era" of basketball in 1990 where FIBA allowed longstanding domestic leagues, which mostly had predated the PBA, to become professional. The league's regulations are a hybrid of rules from the NBA and FIBA.

The league played its first game at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City on April 9, 1975. Its main offices are located along Eulogio Rodriguez Jr. Avenue (C-5 road), Eastwood City, Bagumbayan, Quezon City.

## Release

### Broadcast from

February 22, 2004-August 20, 2008

***The PBA on ABC*** (later renamed as ***The PBA on TV5***) was a presentation of Philippine Basketball Association games by the Associated Broadcasting Company. *The PBA on ABC* premiered on February 22, 2004, replacing the previous broadcaster of the games, National Broadcasting Network and Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (PBA on NBN/IBC).

#### Overview

The *PBA on ABC* premiered on February 22, 2004, succeeding the short-lived NBN/IBC consortium which aired only the 2003 season. Commentators included Mico Halili, Quinito Henson, Paolo Trillo and Norman Black, as well as Ed Picson.

After the 2004-05 PBA Philippine Cup, the league and the network extended the contract for the 2005 Fiesta Conference. After the contract expired in 2005, despite a low amount of money offered, the league chose ABC over Solar Sports, who had a much bigger bid than the former. ABC and the PBA then signed a three-year deal that expired after the 2007-08 season.

In May 2008, ABC backed out of bidding for a new contract due to financial reasons, leaving only ABS-CBN and Solar Sports. The latter would later air the PBA games beginning the 2008-09 season until the 2010-11 season. Despite this, the broadcast was rebranded to the *PBA on TV5* beginning Game 3 of the 2008 Fiesta Conference Finals, up until Game 7 of the said series. After which, the now-defunct C/S9 will air PBA games.

## *PBA on One Sports*

Title card when the branding was then known as the PBA on AKTV

## Release

### Broadcast from

October 2, 2011

The **PBA on One Sports** (formerly known as the **PBA on AKTV**, **PBA on Sports5** and **PBA on ESPN5**) is the presentation of Philippine Basketball Association basketball games which started in the 2011-12 season. Telecasts are produced by One Sports (formerly Sports5 and ESPN5), the sports division of TV5 Network Inc., and aired through TV5, One Sports, PBA Rush and simulcasted through livestreaming at ESPN5 official website, Facebook fan page and YouTube channel. Also, there is a separate coverage in English commentary on PBA Rush starting July 15, 2016.

TV5, which was formerly known as the Associated Broadcasting Company (ABC), previously handled the coverage of the games from 2004 to 2008.

#### Overview

The coverage of the games were first known as the *PBA on AKTV* (Tagalog: *PBA sa AKTV*) when Sports5 signed a blocktime agreement with the Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (IBC).

Following the dissolution of the AKTV on IBC block on May 2013 due to high airtime costs and low ratings, TV5 managed to cover the 2013 Commissioner's Cup Finals series with simulcasts on AksyonTV. This was the first time in five years that the PBA broadcast on TV5, the last time TV5 aired the PBA games was from 2004-2008, when the network was known as ABC.

When Sports5 denied transferring the coverage of the games on TV5/AksyonTV, the broadcast returned to IBC for the 2013 Governors' Cup (until the semifinals). After which, beginning the 2013 Governors' Cup Finals, TV5 returned to broadcasting.

In November 2013, Sports5 and Fox Sports Asia have entered in an agreement to air the Wednesday PBA games for the 2013-14 season live on the cable channel. It will have its own English speaking broadcast panel to properly cater the cable channel's audience.

The schedule for the 2014 PBA Commissioner's Cup has been slightly altered starting March 17, 2014, having the Saturday doubleheader games being aired live on TV5, with a lone game scheduled during Mondays and Wednesdays, to maximize TV5's weekday schedule. As a result, the simulcast at AksyonTV was discontinued. The weekday live airing of the games was returned on starting March 26 after several PBA fans reacted negatively about the delayed airing of the first game.

Beginning with the 2014–15 Philippine Cup, all games will be broadcast live on TV5 with simulcasts on AksyonTV and game days (all double headers) will be on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Provincial games will be held during Saturdays which is the only single header game day. The coverage is also live-streamed via sports5.ph, where pre-game and post-game analysis are also featured. The radio coverage was also transferred to TV5's FM radio network Radyo5 from the previous DZSR AM network.

To further utilize the simulcast setup of Sports5, they have assigned a different broadcast panel for TV5 and Hyper/Cignal. TV5 have the Taglish commentary while Hyper/Cignal have English language commentary.

A separate channel was assigned for PBA broadcasts beginning July 15, 2016 named "PBA Rush". The said channel also features game replays and specials. On October 26, 2016, TV5 President and CEO Chot Reyes told the media that the league renewed its contract with Sports5 for three more seasons.

As Sports5 inked a partnership with global sports media network ESPN on October 12, the broadcast coverage of the PBA games were carried over by the new ESPN5, and the new service was soft-launched on Game 1 of the 2017 PBA Governors' Cup Finals on October 13.

The broadcast was rebranded as "PBA on One Sports" on March 8, 2020 to reflect changes within TV5's sports division.

Upon the resumption of the 2020 Philippine Cup from the suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all games will be broadcast live on One Sports and PBA Rush while TV5 will broadcast live every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday games.

Beginning with the 2021 Philippine Cup, since the league decide to FastTrack the season and make the game three times a day, also due to the conflict of the entertainment shows of the TV5 and the beginning of the 2021 Premier Volleyball League Open Conference, the Weekday games will be broadcast live the 2nd and 3rd game on TV5 while the 1st game on One Sports. For Saturday games will be broadcast live on One Sports. For Sunday games will be broadcast live on TV5 while the last game will be broadcast at delay basis. All of the games will be broadcast live on PBA Rush.

Starting with the 2023-24 PBA season, all PBA games are now shown on A2Z.

## Broadcast history

### TV5-related

* ABC/TV5 (February 22, 2004-August 20, 2008)
* AKTV on IBC (October 2, 2011 – May 12, 2013)
* Sports5 on IBC (August 14, 2013 – October 7, 2013)
* Sports5 on TV5 (May 15–19, October 11, 2013 – October 8, 2017)
* ESPN5 (October 13, 2017 – January 17, 2020)
* One Sports (TV5/One Sports) (March 8, 2020 – July 30, 2023)
* A2Z (Powered by Sports5) (November 5, 2023 – present)

### Other

* KBS/RPN (1975, 1977, 2008-2011)
* BBC (1976, 1982-1983)
* GTV/MBS/PTV/NBN (1978-1981, 1984-1995, 2003)
* IBC (1996-2003)
* C/S9/SOLARtv (2008-2011)
* Studio 23 (2011)

## Notes

1. ↑ From 2008-2011 via Solar Sports
2. ↑ Not to be confused with the British BBC.
3. ↑ 1982-1983 broadcast via Vintage Sports
4. ↑ Not to be confused with the present-day GTV, rebranded from GMA News TV.
5. ↑ 1984-1995 broadcast via Vintage Sports
6. ↑ From 1996-1999 via Vintage Sports, from 2000-2002 via Viva TV, from 2003 via NBN/IBC
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Via Solar Sports