by Ronnie Nathanielsz
Eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao pulled off a historic television multi-network coup by using his persuasive influence and his negotiating skills to convince Solar Sports, which has the exclusive TV rights to his fights in the Philippines, to hammer out an agreement that would enable the Philippines three major networks, ABS-CBN, GMA 7 and TV 5 as well as Cignal TV, PLDT Smart and Sky Cable to telecast his "Fight of the Century" against Floyd Mayweather Jr simultaneously on May 2nd [May 3, Manila Time].
GMA network radio station dzBB will also broadcast a blow by blow account of the fight "live" from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas thereby guaranteeing that a target audience of an estimated 100 million Filipinos will be able to watch or listen to what promises to be an epic battle between two of the greatest welterweights of all-time in a bout that was five years in the making.
In the Philippines, Solar Sports has re-titled the epic encounter as the “Battle for Greatness.”
The agreement was announced in a press conference hosted by Solar Sports at the Solaire Resort and Casino at which representatives of the three networks together with Solar Sports TV and PLDT-Smart officials were present.
In brief remarks through Skype to representatives of the three networks as well as those of SkyCable, Cignal TV and PLDT Smart and the many other platforms that would carry the fight, Pacquiao expressed his gratitude to all who were involved in making this a reality and made special mention of Solar Sports Wilson Tieng who confessed he spent "sleepless nights" to help Pacquiao's dream of uniting the broadcast networks in the interest of the Filipino people come true.
Tieng revealed that “ It took two weeks and many sleepless nights to make this happen. At night time here we’re calling the US and at daytime here we’re bargaining with everyone.”
BoxingScene.com/New Standard/Viva Sports learned that there were tough back-and-forth negotiations between Solar and ABS-CBN until some 30 minutes before the contract was signed with Pacquiao playing a key role in ensuring an agreement was reached and as Tieng remarked “ the most important thing here is that Manny Pacquiao played a great part here. He was the one who wanted this. Solar Sports can only take part of the credit.”
Pacquiao was overjoyed at the success of his unifying efforts. Tieng said "it was tough for everyone" in reaching an agreement even as he indicated there is more work to be done in the weeks ahead to make this a truly magnificent example of how rivals can get together for a common cause with Pacquiao himself being the architect and someone who diligently pursued the cause of unifying our nation through his fights.
ABS-CBN Integrated Sports chief Dino Laurena said the historic partnership between the networks will give local fans the chance to watch the most important fight of Pacquiao's career.
Laurena said "Everybody has to have an opportunity to watch Manny Pacquiao lay his claim that he is better than Mayweather."
The fight will be telecast on free television on a slightly delayed basis.
Solar Sports will show the fight on cable television through pay-per-view with Cignal and Sky Cable as the official pay-per-
GMA-7 executive vice president Felipe Yalong speaking at the well-attended press event said “we owe it to the Filipino people” even as he pointed out that the network had agreed to the unprecedented multi network telecast “in deference to the request of Manny Pacquiao himself.”
Tieng who was the key figure in the often trying negotiations to get a deal done said “Everybody agreed to set aside all their differences to make sure that this will become the biggest event ever in Philippine television history.”
He classified it as “a win-win-win-win solution. I don’t know how many wins I should say.”
BoxingScene.com/Boxingmirror.com reported over a week ago that Solar Sports paid $10 million for the Philippine television and other ancillary rights.
