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If
in India it's cricket, in the Philippines it is basketball
that gets the sports fan in a tizzy.
After
just under six months off the air on the Sky Cable, Home
Cable and PCC platforms, the ESPN and Star Sports channels
came back on TV screens in the Philippines on April 17.
This followed a new agreement between the Rupert Murdoch-promoted
Star Group Limited and the three cable entities. The agreement
also includes other Star Group channels - National Geographic,
Star Movies and Star World, an official statement says.
The agreement was thrashed out ahead of the NBA Playoffs
and Finals, which will be telecast on ESPN and Star Sports
channels starting this month. With Sky
Cable, Home Cable and PCC comprising 75 per cent of cable
households in the Philippines, Filipino basketball fans
can heave a huge sigh of relief.
Rik
Dovey, managing director of ESPN STAR Sports said: "The
Philippines is a key Asian sports TV market with a high
demand for quality sports programming. We're happy to have
ESPN and Star Sports accessible again to cable subscribers
in the Philippines who've consistently expressed their passion
for a variety of sports and NBA in particular."
The
dispute reportedly goes back to 22 October, 2001, when Star
TV pulled the plug on Sky Cable and Home Cable over unpaid
fees the broadcaster said was in the millions of Filipino
dollars.
Star
Group regional director Charles Pollard had been quoted
as saying then that supply was "indefinitely suspended"
over the cable systems' "non-payment of millions of (Filipino)
dollars of fees" to Star and ESPN Star Sports.
And
in shades akin to the situation obtaining in India, Sky
Cable and Home Cable had charged in a joint statement that
Star TV was "trying to bully us into buying a bundle of
six channels on a ‘take all or nothing' basis," when the
two only wanted Star Sports, Star Movies and ESPN.
The
two cable providers, which joined operations in early 2001,
said they could not afford the new contract terms worth
10 million Filipino dollars, up from 5.5 million Filipino
dollars for five channels.
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