TV 5 has the exclusive rights to the NFL in the Philippines. It is not a good thing.
| SUPPORT INDEPENDENT SOCIAL COMMENTARY! Subscribe to our Substack community GRP Insider to receive by email our in-depth free weekly newsletter. Opt into a paid subscription and you'll get premium insider briefs and insights from us. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter, GRP Insider! Learn more |
I have lived in Manila for 17 years. In the past the NFL provided a respite from mass media stupidity from September to February every year. There have been episodes of drama where Sky lost ESPN and only Destiny had it as well as other incidents. In 2011 ASN ( All Sports Network ) was magical. They had all the prime time NFL games as well as a lot of the other games live or taped. Some of them even live in the wee hours of early Monday morning our time. They even had NFL Network shows.
A pleasant byproduct of having the NFL in the upper tiers of your cable converter is that about 98% of the commercials ( or space fillers in between the live action) were produced elsewhere. ASN HD has these constant tributes to height, speed and snow. I am talking about extreme sports: guerrilla skydiving jumping off buildings, hazardous surfing, base jumping with wingsuits, extreme skiing in Hokkaido and other visual treats.
A year ago the local rights of the NFL were given to Sports Illustrated Asia . Their programming between the action consisted of talk between their hosts about all kinds of US sports as well as international soccer. The NFL preview show had “Pearl ” among its stable of experts. Better known as Andrew “McLovin” Perloff of the Dan Patrick Show.
When September rolled around this year I wanted to punch something when I discovered the NFL was no longer on Sports Illustrated. Then after a few weeks my fellow NFL junkie cousin sent me an ad that TV5 was showing the prime time NFL games. I did not turn to it immediately for the following reasons: 1) the baseball playoffs provided games almost every day. 2) After a few years of watching the NFL on HD it is painfully hard to go back to over the air local TV. 3) I avoided anything with over the air commercials for decades.
Once the final out was recorded between the Houston Astros and LA Dodgers I knew that a return to NFL football was inevitable. You know that when you resort to the argument “it’s better than nothing” then it is synonymous with scraping the bottom of the barrel. An axiom they have in marketing is that presentation is everything. We are 21 days from 2018 and we have to put up with standard definition?? Oh I forgot this is the Philippines where the standards are low.
“Speaking of the Olympics. The Olympic gods smile on the Philippines even once in a while. A silver medal!! As in singular. Japan has 7 more than us. Silver medals I mean. They came up with a total 41 medals in Brazil. The Philippines got one. They have a slight advantage in terms of population. They are no different than we are genetically. Then how can we be so proud of one silver medal in 20 years and they have forty more in a single Olympics? We treat Hidilyn Diaz like she walked on the moon… barefoot.”
Me in my last GRP post
This is the Philippines where basketball is not the dominant sport but the only sport. Again, the standards are low. This is the only country in the whole world where the national team can not have any regrets about the team they put together. Let me explain. In other countries they can ( does not mean they do) all mull over what could have been when it comes to their national basketball team because their best athletes may be playing striker, goalkeeper, shortstop, center fielder, right wing , quarterback, cornerback, left tackle and so on. The Philippines does not produce athletes that excel in other sports (individual or team) that should be on the national basketball team. Our basketball team is the sole destination of the elite athletes produced by this country. Those other countries that routinely beat us in basketball I am sure produce more Olympic medals than one every 20 years and with their male athletes.
It is very hard for pinoys who only watch the NBA to understand but the NFL and the NHL are more popular in the two countries where the NBA plays.
The NBA is by far the best basketball league on the planet. They only have teams in two countries. Neither of them have basketball as their most popular sport. The NFL is not only the most popular sports league in the US but it is the most popular program in five different TV networks (ESPN, Fox, TNT, CBS, NBC). Let me repeat that: not the most popular sport but the most popular program in five different networks. This in a country that already has the best basketball, hockey and baseball in the world. They also have professional soccer and several professional racing circuits. Compare that to the Philippines where there is only basketball. We are the only country in the world that has basketball myopia. There is no soccer league to feed the Azkals with players let alone any other sports. We have one pro sports league that nobody pilfers players from. I only bring this up because the NBA is the only pro sports league in the world that pinoys care about. In the one pro sport they care about they can not even generate token representation because their standards are low. They struggle to qualify for FIBA every four years because their standards are low. It does not matter that every country that beats them has a sport it prioritizes over basketball. They can not dominate in the win column so they yell puso. Puso is just another way of saying we can not excel in the one sport we focus on.
Quick over simplification of this. How you choose to deliver a message is part of your message. The NFL is delivered here in low standard definition.
Look at my plight, I am starved for the NFL but my enthusiasm was dampened because the standards of the provider are low. Watching the NFL on local TV in 2017 comes at a price that simply was not there before. As Herbert Marshall McLuhan said ” the medium is the message”. How you deliver the message is part of the message since your choice of media for your message is part of the experience. Yeah so give us the NFL in low standard definition after being spoiled with High Definition the previous six seasons. The message I am getting loud and clear has two words. The last word being ” …. you!!!!”
I have no idea how TV 5 won the rights for the NFL but in my mind they feel that the local fan does not deserve to view the NFL on High Definition. Otherwise they would have given us the choice to still be able to watch the NFL on Sports Illustrated in High Definition. The way God intended it to be viewed. I doubt a specialty HD channel in the upper tiers of your cable TV spectrum will put a dent into whatever ratings TV 5 gets for the NFL. We must placate the low standards of over the air local television and give you the NFL in (low) standard definition.
Kojak is actually part of pinoy TV history.
I am such a fossil I remember when it was big news when the first ever US TV show was dubbed in Tagalog. That show was Kojak with Telly Salavas. There was novelty I admit. I can not remember if it was only for that one episode. I bring that up because to watch the NFL I have to be bombarded with ads for US shows like Walking Dead, Arrow and Supergirl with the people speaking Tagalog. Call me old fashioned but only Tagalog shows should be in Tagalog. When I watch Japanese movies I prefer subtitles to dubbing. This is about my opinion and I do not believe replacing English with Tagalog in a country where the news outlets of record are in English enhances the intellectual level of those TV shows.
I am sure all of us support the troops unless you go on record saying that our troops should not kill people who are willing and able to kill them. I wonder how are men and women in uniform feel about the FVP’s sentiment? I feel bad for the troops who made the ultimate sacrifice in the recently concluded Marawi siege. I was watching what I thought was a public awareness of the sacrifice of the troops and the family they left behind. Then they show a locally prominent businessman addressing the troops and of course the name of his organization. The poor grieving widows are the worm that draws you to watch and feel sad then turns out underneath the worm is the hook that is awareness of a businessman and his company. I definitely have nothing against business and nothing against selling but this?? This PSA (public service announcement) of a grieving widow in tears brought to you by _______ . That is totally up to you if that sits well with your conscience.
It is interesting to note that TV 5 is now showing the NFL. The big name behind them is Manny Pangalinan. The same Manny Pangalinan who read speeches at grad ceremonies that were plagiarized from many well known sources. The same Manny Pangalinan who was rumored a few years ago to be purchasing the Sacramento Kings. Rumored only by local media I might add. I am not saying I am cynical or anything but a guy whose companies do so much advertising in all forms of media in this country might be able to plant a story in some of those outlets that he is buying the Kings. It is not out of the question that somebody in the local media ” did him a solid“. I listen to all sorts of American sports talk radio for 14 years and not ONCE did this ever come up in any of them. America, you know the country where the NBA plays. Any NBA, NFL or MLB team for sale to any non US entity is always big news for talk radio.
People here want a pinoy in the NBA not because he is good but because of sugar daddy MVP?? This is the typical pinoy shortcut mentality where they don’t need to earn something. Buying is good enough. Also look at the equation she put as their signature six years ago. Any of it come true?? Do pinoys have a monopoly on heart and unity?
I bring this up because several local fans were so extremely excited at the time of the thought of pinoy coaches and players in the NBA based on a piece by the late Beth Celis. It is available in several places online. It mentions the possibility of a pinoy coach and a pinoy player that the owner can “haggle for a Filipino assistant coach or for transfer of technology and a Filipino player or two in the team. After all, he owns it.”. Which brings up the question why has this not happened yet?? The answer is simple: the Filipino sports scene is a culture of low standards and the NBA is a league of high standards. Sorry but that is not a match made in heaven. Did LeBron James ever have to haggle? No , he was good and it is that simple. The word “haggle” is something you do in a flea market not in a world class organization like the NBA. The fact that the sophisticated pinoy sports fan got so excited that pinoy ownership will make their dream of a pinoy in the NBA come true!!! These people ignore the fact that the only reason there are no pinoys in the NBA is they never had the talent or skill to beat the 12th man in any NBA roster ever. That will not change if ( and that is a big if) that a pinoy is allowed to and has the enormous resources to buy an NBA team. Like I said before here in GRP, The Pinoy culture does not value work but they value the prize that other people get for putting in the work. So the idea (not the reality) of MVP buying an NBA team just stoked the pinoys unrealistic fantasies enough that he got all this attention. High expectations with low capabilities is bad enough. What is worse is high expectations based on a tall tale devoid of any additional achievement on the hardwood.
This goofball may not be a source of sober thought but neither are Filipinos who try to rationalize their absence in upper echelon basketball.
I think I have shown that pinoys would love to see a pinoy play in the NBA. There is nothing wrong with that on its own but expecting their dream to come true only because Daddy Warbucks was rumored to buy the Kings?? Really ? Somebody buys something privately ( in theory) and it makes YOUR dream come true? Even newspaper delivery man child Chris Petersen is more rooted in reality.
Can somebody please look at the country that came in 6th in last year’s Olympics and start making those fake excuses.
I am sick of pinoys playing the gene victim card. Like I said above the Japanese are like us with colder weather and MORE discipline. That is why they win more than one Olympic medal every 20 years. Japan also has several high profile Major League Baseball players.
Is lack of height a valid excuse for not having one player in the NBA ever? I am sure many pinoys taller than 5 ‘9 but no one is as remotely skilled as Thomas.
Pinoys also cry victim when God handed out height. They will always give that excuse ” we don’t have the height.”. Let me render that refrain superfluous: #1 do you dominate among countries that don’t have as much height as you?? #2 Isaiah Thomas ( who is 5 feet 9 inches) in the last post season scored 53 points in a single game for the NBA’s Boston Celtics. He is not only in the league but excels from time to time. Not sure about you about you but many pinoys ( including me) are taller than that. Pinoys will always whine about height in basketball but never about lacking skill , discipline and desire. Japan’s medal count and Isaiah Thomas’ mere existence in the NBA is proof of that. In the words of Colin Cowherd that is a you problem.
We have HD TVs . We have HD providers . We once had the NFL in HD . Can we have it now ? No. It’s all about going backwards in this country . In a true free and competitive market we will have the choice . In a country that gets so overjoyed with one Olympic medal in 20 years, completely devoted to basketball with zero impact on the world scene, had a useless president for six years only because of the timing of his mother’s death, this is not a culture that strives for nor rewards excellence. Expecting quality and choice through rigorous competition is simply not part of our culture. That is why in 2018 we only have standard definition for the NFL because in all aspects of our lives we have very low standards and pinoys are very fine with that. Who loves ya baby??
Putting a very sharp needle into the balloon known as Pinoy Pride since 2012.
Gogs,
here is my take on a few things.
– Dubbing TV programs
In Germany, every James Bond movie (and all other foreign language items) aired on German TV is dubbed. Can you imagine hearing a German guy speak when you expect Roger Moore, Sean Connery or Daniel Craig to talk? So you (the Philippines) are not alone in this.
– Sports in the Philippines
It needs talent to excel. Talent needs to be spotted and trained. Training and practise sessions takes time (blood, sweat and tears). Most or all sports in USA start at school (College, high school and university). In most European countries sports starts at club level (as a hobby) and not in schools.
Sports in my country are subsidised. And the actual athlete also have to pay an annual fee (membership fee). You can start from the age of 6.
Why are Filipinos under-achievers when it comes to sports?
I really think it has to do with having a collectivistic culture. While sports expects you to do things on your own (even team sports). Furthermore, I guess, PH youngsters are NOT encouraged/stimulated to do something in any kind of sports. And I think that sport facilities are not really in abundance in PH.
In European soccer, close to 100% of all the soccer players come from a poor background. And the top soccer players earn millions of EUR€ / Euros. Especially players like Leo Messi (ARG) and Cristiano Ronaldo (POR). If that isnt enough to be an inspiration to get out of poverty, I am lost. And for PH women. a dutch woman was chosen as FIFA world best soccer player 2017. She is playing for FC Barcelona, Spain. Her annual income is estimated at EUR€ 200k.
1. Exactly – preserve the acting of whoever is on the screen. 2. Talent plus desire plus commitment plus discipline. I think I lost a lot of the local athletes at desire. They desire the rewards but as Gary Player said ” you wish you could hit a golf ball like me if it was easy”. 3. In the Philippines there is sport. Singular not plural. Everybody chooses basketball and so that is all you get. Self fulfilling prophecy. That is all there is and they still can’t beat countries that take 3 or more team sports seriously. 4. People that play in La Liga and the Premiership etc see their own people make it big and they watch these big time games from far away and can believe that will be them one day. Like I said in their minds pinoys are psyched out by having to earn their way to the NBA they already rejoice at the notion MVP can buy them a roster spot. Which shows you the whore mentality is alive and well in the pinoy sports fan.
I went back to PI to enjoy my vacation with my family. I remember when I wasn’t able to play basketball at the public park because of local kids hustling me for money to able to play with them.
I said “Fuck it.” Then brought my oblong-shaped football and played catch with my younger brother. People around us including those hustling players started staring at us wondering what was that thing we were throwing. I felt they got stuck in a time loop and didn’t move on over the years of exercising their small bodies while we learned new things and evolved above them. It was refreshing to see their reactions and felt we achieved a lot of things already over the years.
IT FELT GOOD RUBBING THAT FOOTBALL IN THEIR STUNNED FACES!
Many athletes are stars in multiple sports. Of course your community would have to give you the choice. But basketball, basketball and more basketball is the lot in life here. Love your story. So far nobody here has commented on the my point of standard definition.
Filipinos don’t excel in sports, simply because they have the “puede na yan” mentality. There are many sports, that Filipino could excel, that do not require heights. Just look at the items of sports played in the Olympics.
In western countries, and in America; a child has to have sports, or arts; in addition to his/her academics. If your sports, is baseball, you must be the best in it. If your arts is singing or writing; you must be the best in it. However, you must excel also in your academics.
Gymnastics, is a good sports; where Filipino could excel. It does not require heights. But it requires balance and agility.
However, we have the best sports, in our country; that is :Politics. It is a field, where anybody who is corrupt can get rich easily. No sweat ! Look at : Aquino, Mar Roxas, Porky Drilon, Trillanes, Leila de Lima, Butch Abad, etc…
Like I said in my old Olympics piece if the events were epal, baduyness and looking for attention we would monopolize the podium.
I looked at Kobe Paras school Cal State Northridge and their standings are poor with a current 1-7 overall record. I know its early but a lot of D1 NCAA schools are already competing on a high level. He may have a chance on other teams other than UCLA like San Diego Sate U. At this rate he won’t even make it to NBA D-league. He’ll be lucky to play at China along with Jimmer Fredette who won the Naismith Award few years ago. He’s young and a rookie and we’ll see more of him if he improves. But I believe SDSU can develop him further to the next level.
Wasn’t that guy supposed to go Creighton after Lavar Ball pulled him out of UCLA? ( Sorry I could not resist) . Isn’t he already in his second year of eligibility unless he was redshirted last year. San Diego State at least in football did not give out athletic scholarships. For what that is worth. Did not hurt Tony Gwynn or Jim Harbaugh.
Kobe spent a year in Creighton but transferred due to lack of playing time. It was his call. As far as I know, it was highly unlikely he would get more minutes in the upcoming season because around 5-6 players were vying for the same spot. So to CSUN he went. I’m not entirely sure why he chose the school but it’s not hard to see why. CSUN is basically located in Los Angeles, the city Kobe played high school ball and where his connections are all located. Kobe was probably frustrated and homesick so transfer was his best option. At this point in his career, my main concern is Kobe’s playing time in his new school. He has three years left of college ball eligibility so whatever comes after is still relatively far away to accurately predict. I’ll reserve my judgment once his current redshirt year is over.
Latest Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani will now play with LA Angels on MLB. He will join other Japanese and Korean players like Yu Darvish and Shin-Soo Choo who are playing there as well.
What does this mean? Our PH sports program sucks ass. We have no funding for sports science, lack of equipment and root program, and unqualified personnel and whoever they hired to make it better but they are leeches sucking out the money and energy out of these poor athletes along with their precious dreams to be on the big stage of their career.
All the growing population, but no productivity in sports. Might as well kill those illegal drug users and sellers.
We have no infrastructure for youth sports but we can bribe senator judges 50 million pesos per yes vote. I did link to the Ohtani news in my piece. Imagine he is playing for the MLB minimum when he could make so much more in Japan for the next two years. His priority is to play with the best of the best. Something pinoys can only dream of.
Failipino people insist that ‘mediocre’ is better than ‘best.’ They delight in clipping wings because they themselves can’t fly. They despise brains because they have none.
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
Mediocre effort is the result of the sense of entitlement pinoy athletes have. And the comments to the MVP fake news is proof of that. Not one person brought up the idea of work.
NFL ratings, viewership, subscriptions and ticket buyers are going down because of the Take a Knee idiotic protests, so of course the NFL is scrambling to get any deal they can, doesn’t help ESPN’s idiotic sports commentators are putting politics first before sports.
1. Yes NFL ratings are mostly taking a dip this year but it is not like anything is catching up apples to apples. Like I said I love baseball and for the first time in a while a baseball game did well against an NFL game but it was playoffs vs regular season. 2. True that. I listen to a lot of them and Ryen Russilo hates how it is almost expected that you have to take an anti Trump stand. I like Jemele Hill but she should not have done what she did.
and they will regret it…
@ GOGS, Great article pointing out the ‘PAR-FOR-THE-COURSE’ MEDIOCRITY that has the entire country enveloped.
It is truly a microcosm of what is one of the bigger problems that the country has, and continues to do NOTHING about.
Nothing wrong with being mediocre because the fact of life is somebody has to be. The problem is pinoy pride is mostly about disillusion. Pinoys will grasp at the weirdest most trivial things to justify losing.
Some feedback I decided to answer from the GRP Facebook Page
Dan Steely
Leonard Michael Mark Randrup
Not sure how you say respect the differences when pinoys with their sense of entitlement do not respect competition and work. We had the NFL in HD and for you respect means to go back to pinoy low standards out of respect? Arrow and Walking Dead in Tagalog is respect??
Joaquin Fabros
1. I agree because the two sports where developing economies thrive in : baseball and soccer. 2. It does not matter with the height requirement. There is a skill requirement to be among the best and the pinoys obsession with basketball does not help them separate from the pack in that regard.
Jolly Tengco
Because places with no choice are communist socialist places and I want no part of that.
Antonio Santos
Yes, more choice. Weird how it is basketball only and we can’t even get that right when it comes to competing with others.
Elaine Cerveau
Elaine. In an older piece I did, I quote a senator who says we have a rich government but spends none of it on sports.
Let me give an unpopular opinion: Filipino cuisine is unhealthy. Before you start rolling your sleeves and hurl bricks at me, please note that I didn’t say our food was bad. No, I said it is unhealthy. While it can fill our stomachs and arguably tastes good, it does not make us fit. Filipino food is generally fattening and salty. Not great for kids who are athletically inclined. Like most Asian countries, we consume more carbs than protein, which is not good for the development of our muscles and bone structure (I’m not a Physical Fitness expert so feel free to correct me here). Add to that, a great number of our populace still live in poverty so access to quality nutrients is hindered. I don’t believe in gene-victimhood. We don’t have the genes to grow as tall as Eastern Europeans. That’s one thing. The other thing is to not dwell on this for too long or, worse, use it as a scapegoat to do the things you can do. Studies have shown that Asians are getting taller each generation due to improvements in health, fitness, livelihood, and diet. Just look up the average height of Koreans back in the 60’s compared to now. Huge difference. There are, of course, other factors that still come to play. For instance, certain studies have shown that people who live nearer the equator are shorter compared to their counterparts in the far north due to the colder climate. The point, however, is these factors are beyond your control and playing the gene victim card does not do anything other than generate more misery.
Eating white rice 3x a day is so unhealthy. I’ve seen my Facebook friends got fatter and chubbier as we age our metabolism decreased. I started to get rid of white rice and eat at least a cup once per month. Plus living in a country where four seasons are happening helps me adjust my workout plan and job and it’s fun to challenge yourself. Where I work at encourages us to lose more weight and promotes camaraderie among workers. Now I’m not only playing basketball, but other sports like volleyball, flag football, and softball.
Mostly those who are showered with blessings to stand in Sports Extraordinaire are well let’s says Rich Families. They are all scouted in prestigious universities. Normal Filipinos will never ever get that privilege. Damn it why do Filipinos always think of basketball? when it comes to sports? There are a lot of sport! and many talented youth that excels at it?! what the heck.
Basketball the only sport..HAHA and they can’t even get a Championship in the international scene. No Pinoy ever grace in NBA, the very institution they look up, get trashed by China and other European countries and still brag that they are the no.1 fan of basketball which they can’t even live up to looking at the records they show in international scene.
“This in a country that already has the best basketball, hockey and baseball in the world. ”
Not true about hockey. Russia won thew most international titles during the last 10 years. However, many of the Russian players play in the “N”HL. The N means national though it’s a binational (USA/Canada) league.