After banner PBA season, AKTV plans to bring league even closer to fans

PBA/Nuki Sabio

AKTV, the sports block of TV5, will be taking on a larger role in an effort to increase the popularity of the PBA.

In the annual planning meeting of the league’s Board of Governors, TV5 chief operating officer and executive vice president Bobby Barreiro said the focus is to bring the PBA and its players closer to fans.

“We want to get more fans involved, more engaged in the PBA, especially with their favorite players,” said Barreiro, who presented AKTV’s plans for the PBA for the upcoming season.

“The games have become more exciting with the improved brand of play and our role is to communicate that to the public.”

In its first season with TV5 back as broadcast partner, the PBA saw a banner season that set records in gate attendance as well as television ratings. The average audience share for the league’s games in Mega Manila for the season was 9.2 percent, which marked an increase of 6.8 percent from the previous year’s campaign.

The PBA on AKTV broadcast posted the league’s highest viewership ratings in eight years buoyed by the epic seven-game Commissioner’s Cup title series between the B-MEG Llamados and the Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters. The overtime period of the final game drew four million viewers, for and AMR of 9.7 and a 27.4 share, beating GMA-7 (24%), ABS-CBN (19%), and TV5 (17%) in Mega Manila.

Barreiro said the league’s resurgence has drawn the interest of more advertisers. He said AKTV is planning to capitalize on that momentum by bringing the league closers to fans.

“The fans now are more active, more involved, so we want to tap that energy,” said Barreiro.

“We want to present the players’ and teams’ other side. There will be more features on their personal lives, what they usually do off the playing courts.”

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