No full SEA Games TV coverage

The Southeast Asian Games seems to have lost its appeal to TV producers and sponsors.  Save for Studio 23’s men’s basketball and women’s football coverage, there is no longer any full broadcast coverage of the entire SEA Games.

There are still occasional news reports but the main source of information is really print and online reports.

Perhaps the lessened chances of Filipinos to score golds in events they previously dominated have something to do with this.  The Philippine team entered this edition of the games with its eyes wide open that it would not be able to figure prominently in the overall race because sports it used to lord over like bowling are not in the schedule.

Nevertheless, the current coverage state is a contrast to previous efforts like those of the government TV station when everyone could follow the exploits of Filipino athletes whether they won or lost. This development is both unfortunate and practical.

It’s no joke to mount a full TV coverage, what with the high broadcast rights costs and the logistical needs of sending personnel and equipment abroad for at least a week.  Also, the host broadcaster is sometimes unable to cover all the events because of the lack of capability to telecast certain sports.

Print media has the advantage of sending small teams of reporters and photographers but it is still a challenging coverage because of the number of athletes to follow and the distances between playing venues. Reporters cannot be physically present in all the events and rely immensely on the information the host country can provide. Quite often in the SEA Games, the reporting of results to the media center is not as brisk like in the Olympics

But despite the absence of a full broadcast coverage, this should not mean that the SEA Games is less important to athletes and countries in the region.  Despite being criticized as a regional intramurals with performance standards way below Asian or Olympic levels, the regional competition still provides young athletes their first brush with international competition.

This spirit is lost however because of the undue pressure to win as many gold medals as possible.  The success or failure of a country’s sports development program seems to hinge on how high or low a nation finishes in the final medal tally.  It is a view that will probably not change soon no matter how much we remind all of the rawness of the SEA Games and that the real measures are Asian and Olympic standards.

It is hoped that the time will return when television will be able to provide the country with a full coverage of how its athletes perform in the SEA Games.  Costs will always be a major consideration in deciding a return but perhaps the value of seeing young athletes play for their country should also carry weight in the decision making.