THE National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is on the bidding table but whoever wins between aspirants CIGNAL TV/TV5 and GMA, the league’s shuttered Season 96 won’t open until a vaccine is out against Covid-19.
“No vaccine, no opening,” said Letran’s Fr. Victor Calvo Jr., the NCAA Management Committee chairman of the postponed season.
Calvo said the league is putting extreme priority on the health and safety of the student athletes and has virtually dismissed the potential of putting up a training bubble, saying it would be costly for the NCAA and the schools.
But Calvo intimated to the BusinessMirror that even though the season’s opening is still up in the air, negotiations are ongoing between the league and television networks CIGNAL TV/TV5 and GMA.
CIGNAL TV/TV5 confirmed its interest in airing anew the NCAA games, while GMA’s corporate communications department neither confirmed nor denied the network’s bid.
“Yes, we are in talks and it is our earnest desire to build a long-term partnership with the NCAA,” Robert Galang, Cignal TV/TV5 President and CEO, told BusinessMirror in a text message.
Galang, however, didn’t disclose any detail on the station’s bid to air the games of the country’s oldest collegiate multi-sport league.
“GMA and TV5 are bidding. But I think I don’t have the right to divulge the details because it is [up] for bidding,” Calvo told the BusinessMirror. “We’ll have the result late next week after All Souls Day.”
The NCAA, just like the University Athletic Association of the Philippines, were under a five-year contract with ABS-CBN. But the network shut down due to franchise issues, shoving both leagues on the bidding table.
The UAAP already sealed a five-year contract with the Manuel V. Pangilinan-owned Cignal TV/TV5 last week starting with the league’s similarly postponed Season 83 tentatively set for the first quarter of next year.
“GMA and Cignal TV/TV5 have good things to offer to the league and they are in the final stages of presentation their bids,” Calvo said.
GMA used to air the defunct Shakey’s V League, the National Basketball Association and most of Manny Pacquiao’s early fights in the US.
Cignal TV/TV5, on the other hand, is heavy on its sports programs and extensively airs the Philippine Basketball Association Games. It was also the lead network in last year’s Philippines 30th Southeast Asian Games.
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