Promising to bring the spectacle of local club football to the fans, the Philippine Premier League inked what could be a pivotal deal with the country’s largest sports broadcasting network, ESPN 5 for the coverage of the revamped local football league.
As announced in the press conference held at the Fairmont Makati on the 23rd of January 2019, ESPN5 has agreed to broadcast around 23 league matches on free TV with the possibility of providing alternatives such as live streaming through the network’s website.
The league will also get some airing time on Sportscenter, ESPN5’s nightly magazine show, for the highlights of the matches. It will be a big boost for this new league as that has been the downfall of the Philippines Football League in their previous outings.
Back in its first season, the PFL signed a deal with PTV to broadcast the matches live, however, the number of the games broadcasted immediately decreased up to the point that there were no aired matches forcing them to just rely on live streaming on their own platform.
“We believe this is the new dawn for Pinoy club football,” said Bernie Sumayao, the PPL commissioner, at Wednesday’s media launch. He was then seconded by PFF president Mariano Araneta by saying, ” A vibrant domestic league is important for the growth of the game and we think the PPL has what it takes to succeed. We are all very excited.”
