Merger is better
DESPITE the nonrenewal of ABS-CBN’S franchise, the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) has opted to stay with the network.
PVL games can still be televised through other platforms like cable and digital but if I’m a business owner or team owner, I’d like a lot of pairs of eyes to see the best product I can field on the volleyball floor.
The Philippine Superliga (PSL) and PVL are not just sports leagues but they’re also businesses where teams are owned and operated by businessmen who are passionate about women’s volleyball and at the same time who’d like to promote their products and services.
According to casbaa.com, “There are approximately 7.6 million television homes in the country’s urban areas, half of these in Metro Manila, where TV penetration exceeds 95 percent. The other half is scattered in the country’s three major island groups—luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The latest Kantar Media Establishment survey pegs multichannel subscriptions in the “Total Philippines” at 2 million. Central Luzon posted the highest growth, rising to 25 percent from 19 percent.
The National Capital Region (NCR), North Luzon and South Luzon are the biggest cable markets but it will take another two or three years before overall national levels reach the 35 percent of television homes subscribing that NCR and parts of Luzon had achieved by 2009.
Viewing levels in cable homes over the past 18 months have been stable at 20 to 25 percent. Cable channels are watched more in the mornings and data shows that of the 27 percent viewers in this period, over 10 percent are watching cable. The two leading terrestrial channels managed only 5 percent of viewing during this time.”
Statista.com points out that “The statistic shows the number of Facebook users in the Philippines from 2017 to 2023. In 2023, the amount of Facebook users in the Philippines was expected to reach 49.9 million, up from 41.2 million in 2016.
With more than 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most popular social network worldwide. Popular activities on the social network include watching videos, liking content via button, reading articles and messaging friends on 1-1 basis.
In July 2016, Facebook Messenger surpassed 1 billion monthly active users, placing it directly next to Facebook-owned competitor Whatsapp. Facebook successfully managed the transition from social network to mobile social platform, nearing 1 billion monthly active users and with mobile accounting for 77 percent of the social network’s total advertising revenue in 2015.
Mobile is also the keyword regarding the online market in the Philippines; in 2014, 41.28 million people accessed the Internet through their mobile phone. In 2021, this figure projected to amount to 66.64 million mobile phone Internet users. As of July 2016, the Internet penetration among the population in the Philippines was 43.5 percent. A total of 47 million users access social media via mobile on a monthly basis, making the country the second-largest Facebook market in the Southeast Asian region.”
An interesting statistic, napoleoncat.com says “There were 74 850 000 Facebook users in Philippines in January 2019, which accounted for 67.7 percent of its entire population.
The majority of them were women—52.6 percent. People aged 18 to 24 were the largest user group (25 000 000).
The highest difference between men and women occurs within people aged 18 to 24, where women lead by 1 000 000.”
The last statistic may bode well for the PVL but not a lot of our countrymen have access to cable and digital. Most of them, I’d like to think, would like to access their sports content for free on free TV. Not a lot of our people have access to digital and cable so it will be interesting to see how the situation plays out.
A merger between the two leagues however, presents a lot of possibilities and opportunities from advertising, sponsorship, marketing and business development standpoints. A merger will result in less competition for sponsors and advertisers. If the PSL-PVL build it, the sponsors and advertisers will come. Women’s volleyball is now second to men’s basketball as far as the country’s most popular sport discussion is concerned.
A merger will synchronize the schedule of the players which will make them available for flag and country duty. Look at men’s volleyball, only the PVL has men’s volleyball which recently resulted in a silver medal finish at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.
The fans and players want it. The sponsors, advertisers and sports marketers like this writer are salivating at the infinite possibilities. Sports enthusiasts will be very interested to see how it pans out. A merger will not only be a shot in the arm for women’s volleyball, it’ll also be a shot in the arm for Philippine sports.
Come on PVL, let’s give the fans, the players and stakeholders in Philippine sports what they want.