Easing coverage ban good for sports

There has been a clear resurgence of public interest in sports and a broadening of the disciplines that have stirred interest and a great deal of excitement and attention.
Foremost among these sports is football, due mainly to the charismatic Azkals and their endearing, down-to-earth and simple qualities which contrast with some of the so-called Fil-Ams in the PBA.
Aside from the remarkable impact made by the Azkals and the ever-present Manny Pacquiao, whose incredible achievements are the stuff that heroes are made of, we have the dragon boat team whose sensational performance in Tampa, Florida, gripped the imagination of the nation no matter the puerile efforts of some of our so-called sports leaders to insult the athletes and downplay their five-gold, two-silver haul in the World Championships.
A vigilant media, compassionate corporate supporters such as Philippine Airlines and Cobra Energy Drink had the public riveted to the Dragon Boat team’s achievements and the utter lack of support and recognition by the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Sports Commission.
The widespread attention by the print media has been a blessing long overdue for sports that were blocked out of our national consciousness for decades by basketball. The welcome growing involvement of the major television networks in sports has itself raised a few issues of exclusivity and access by those who do not own the television rights for specific events,  even though these are of widespread public interest.
We strongly believe there is a need for the three major networks, ABS-CBN, TV5 and GMA to sit down and work out a mutually acceptable “modus vivendi” that would not shut out competitors almost completely from sports events that have ignited national interest.
For instance, with ABS-CBN’s exclusive rights to cover the Azkals games, the other networks were shunted outside the Rizal Memorial and had to satisfy themselves, if not their viewers needs, with interviews, feature reports and updates on the matches.
TV5 resorted to the same policy during the recent visit of the NBA superstars, who played two games against the PBA All Stars and the Smart Gilas national team, and will almost surely do the same when the network covers the new PBA season just as Studio 23 protects its exclusivity in the UAAP and NCAA.
Solar Sports, whose huge involvement in sports has been considerably reduced, also adopted this coverage and continues to do so in world pool events and big boxing shows. However, we must confess with a great deal of appreciation the cooperation of Solar Sports, ABS-CBN and ABC 5 in terms of our personal requests for footage of boxing events for our own program “The Main Event.”
This could serve as a take-off point, since the footage we receive actually helps promote the fights on their networks and in so doing heightens public interest in the sport.
If only the network executives can compromise and allow a few minutes of independent coverage for news of the sports events for which they have exclusive rights,  then we would surely expand the viewership base which in the end should benefit the sport, its sponsors and most importantly, the public.
If indeed, as ABS-CBN’s Gabby Lopez and our good friend Peter Musngi are committed to sports “in the service of the Filipino,” they may wish to initiate a gathering of minds who can craft a document that would give substance to a worthy slogan which all the networks need not necessarily use but should fundamentally subscribe to.