PBA on ABC


The PBA on ABC 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.

History

Due to poor performance and disappointing ratings, the PBA disbanded a broadcasting consortium between the National Broadcasting Network and the Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation after the 2003 season, and took bids on a new broadcast contract for the league. In January 2004, the PBA began a contract with the Associated Broadcasting Company to broadcast PBA games for one year, beating bids from Solar Sports and a group led by former Vintage Television owner Bobong Velez. The new ABC operation picked up talent from the former NBN/IBC coverage, including Mico Halili, Quinito Henson, Paolo Trillo and Norman Black. Ed Picson was also hired by ABC, after a two-year hiatus from covering the PBA due to a fallout between him and Viva TV in 2002.
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.
Citing financial constraints, ABC backed out of bidding for a new contract for the 2008-09 season's PBA coverage. Solar Sports, through local network Radio Philippines Network, would the new broadcast partner of the PBA for the following season.
Even though the network would be dropping the PBA, ABC still rebranded their PBA coverage during their August 2008 relaunch as TV5 in the middle of the 2008 PBA Fiesta Conference Finals. The final PBA game shown on ABC/TV5 was Game 7 of the Fiesta Conference finals between the Air21 Express and Barangay Ginebra Kings on August 20, 2008. Mico Halili and Jason Webb were the commentators for its last run.

Commentators

Play-by-play