Botched airing of games draws PBA chief’s anger

MANILA—The Philippine Basketball Association blasted television  company SolarTV Sunday night, saying the technical problems that have caused disruption in the airing of some games in the ongoing Philippine Cup are no longer acceptable.   Apparently fed up with the recent development, league commissioner Chito Salud last night said “Solar’s inefficiency and failure to address its commitment to broadcast the PBA in a manner that meets the public expectations is unacceptable and a public disservice.”   “It is unfortunate that no one from Solar is taking charge,” he said. “The PBA and its fans are utterly disappointed.”   Because of technical difficulties, Solar wasn’t able to air the last two minutes of the Alaska-Rain or Shine game last Oct. 15 and the Meralco-Talk ‘N Text that came after.   Salud said that the league has levied a P3 million fine on Solar for the incident.   The second incident happened Friday night when the PBA went off the air for the entire third quarter of the Rain or Shine-Ginebra game. Solar managed to air the early moments of the fourth quarter before going off air again with the game still not finished.   Solar’s coverage last night was also marred by intermittent signal interruptions.   Solar is on the last year of a three-year P508 million deal with the league to broadcast PBA games.