One of the things a segment of the PHL sports population was concerned about at the height of the ABS-CBN shutdown campaign was what effect it would have on Philippine sports.
Say what you want about its news coverage, but you can never question its commitment to PHL sports as it was the only TV network willing to invest hundreds of millions in sports.
GMA? In sports, GMA merely looked at ABS-CBN and tried to copy what it was covering and did it at a fraction of the cost.
In the ‘90s, ABS-CBN gambled on Philippine basketball and launched MBA (Metropolitan Basketball Association). It failed but that failure didn’t discourage them from taking more gambles on Philippine sports. It made Studio 23 into a sports channel, dedicating ample air time that would have been spent on mindless shows like Eat Bulaga on collegiate sports and football.
It partnered with the Philippine Football Federation for a four-year deal for the broadcast rights of the Azkals matches. Again, it was a failure financially for the broadcast giant but it never discouraged the company to keep on supporting Philippine sports.
Then the Foul Mouth from the South came along. And along with him his brainwashed minions. All those decades the company dedicated to Philippine sports meant nothing when it came to perceived bias by its news program against the onion-skinned tough guy. The Dirty Harry-wannabe who, with all the dramatics, said “I may not agree with you, but I will defend your right to say it” but in reality, spent the last two years of his term closing down the network.
And what did his brainwashed minions do, some of whom are sports fans? Like blind followers who would ask, “from what floor, sir?” when their leaders ask them to jump from a building, they harassed the online pages of ABS-CBN, attacked their reporters and worse, reacted with laughing emojis when news of ABS-CBN shut down came out.
I asked then, what kind of Filipinos would be happy when thousands lost their jobs? The same Filipinos who would change their profile pictures to countries who’d suffer calamities or attacks?
Now, here we are, three years post-ABS-CBN shut down. Three years! Some Pinoys still laugh at stories about ABS-CBN franchise. GMA is doing a shitty coverage of Philippine sports, its collegiate coverage has a country-sized room for improvement, a TV deal it only got because of the shutdown.
And Philippine football fans are appealing for TV coverage of the World Cup-bound Filipinas.
Insert laughing emoji react.
The ABS-CBN shutdown proved Philippine sports isn’t worth investing in. The one company that dared invest in sports and gambled millions never even received the support from a supposedly sports-manic country.
Now, some football fans are hitting PHL media for its apparent lack of concern for Philippine football, sharing memes from online pages or whatnot.
Well, at the height of the shutdown, you said you’d rather rely on online bloggers and social media pages since you prefer them over mainstream media for reliable news.
Go ask them to cover the World Cup and air the Filipinas’ matches.