Solar Entertainment Corporation - From SkyCable To Terrestrial Television

From SkyCable To Terrestrial Television

Solar's channels have ceased airing on SkyCable, the Philippines' largest cable television provider. An insider claims that these troubles with SkyCable started when boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao, whose fights Solar Entertainment has the exclusive right to air and distribute to, moved from ABS-CBN, the flagship television network of ABS-CBN Corporation and the primary owner of Sky Cable Corporation, to rival GMA Network. Another insider claims that SkyCable wanted to remove ETC and JackTV to make room for their own channels, Velvet and Maxxx. SkyCable wanted to retain C/S, 2nd Avenue, Solar Sports and Basketball TV, but Solar made a decision that they will only renew their contract if SkyCable carries all six channels. Thus, Solar decided to pull out all their channels rather than remove ETC and Jack TV.

However, Solar has inked a deal with local terrestrial channels TV5, RPN, SBN and RJTV for block-time programming. C/S, ETC and 2nd Avenue programming are seen on terrestrial TV channels RPN, SBN and RJTV, respectively, while NBA and WWE programming were seen on TV5, now moved to RPN.

Basketball TV, Solar Sports & C/S Origin (Now Solar TV) are now back on SkyCable for no additional fee. Jack TV is also scheduled to return to SkyCable effective October 1, 2010 replacing Maxxx.

Meanwhile, Pacquiao's boxing promotion, Top Rank, signed a non-guaranteed contract with ABS-CBN Sports to exclusively air fights promoted by Top Rank, with the exception of Pacquiao fights which are still signed exclusively through Solar Entertainment.