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The Philippine
Basketball Association (PBA) will have a new television station starting next
season after the PBA Board of Governors struck a deal last Tuesday with heavyweight
block-timer Solar Sports to air the games through RPN 9.
The
deal will run for three years and reportedly worth P508 million.
PBA
commissioner Sonny Barrios said the two parties will sign a memorandum of understanding
in the next few days while working on the fine prints of the actual contract.
| | | The
first official PBA activity to be covered by Solar Sports is the 2008 Rookie Camp
in August. The Annual Rookie Draft then comes a few days after.
Solar
Sports is taking over from ABC-5 which has been the PBA's TV coveror the last
four seasons.
"Basically,
the PBA got what it wanted. They (Solar) said yes to practically everything we
asked for. Solar didn't play hard ball despite the withdrawal of ABS-CBN. They're
very accommodating," said Barrios on the deal the league got from the TV
outfit of the Tieng family. | Barrios
said they've got a commitment from Solar Sports to have the best possible coverage
of the PBA games on RPN-9, which telecast the league's games in its early years,
plus bonus features or segments on Solar Sports cable channel Basketball TV (BTV).
"The
plan, in general, is to make the PBA classy again. We'll cater to the A, B, and
upper C classes and not just the masa. We will encompass all social classes, going
through all the demographics," said Solar Sports vice president for sales
and marketing Jude Turcuato.
To
improve the PBA games coverage in particular, Solar Sports will bring in brand
new equipment worth P45 million. | 
