Widespread telecast for Manny’s fight
By Joaquin Henson
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 15 Aug 2021
LOS ANGELES. Fight fans are in for a treat because the local TV rights holder for the WBA welterweight “super” championship fight between defending titlist Yordenis Ugas of Cuba and challenger Sen. Manny Pacquiao has arranged for an extensive nationwide TV coverage of the blockbuster duel at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday morning (Aug. 22, Manila time).
The TV rights holder is Tap Digital Media Ventures founded by the husband-and-wife team of Renen and Cel de Guia of Ovation fame. Tap has worked out an agreement with free-to-air partners GMA, TV5 and CNN Philippines to show the bout which is Pacquiao’s first in two years or since he defeated Keith Thurman in July 2019. The match may also be viewed on the TapSPORTS, TapEDGE, Premier Tennis and Premier Football channels available on SkyCable, Cignal, Air Cable, Converge Pacific Kabelnet Vision, CableLink and WeTV flix. Fans may choose to watch without ads on pay-per-view through their cable providers. As a special offer, Tap is making the fight available for free by subscribing to TapGO, Tap’s sports and entertainment subscription streaming service. Simply log on to tapgo.tv and enter your subscription to avail of this option. TapGO is also available on Google Play (Android) and the App Store (IOS). TapGO digital access codes to the fight may be purchased on Shopee, GCash and PayMaya. For viewers to subscribe, it’s easy----just go to tapgo.tv.
WBC/IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence was Pacquiao’s original opponent but he was diagnosed with a detached retina in the left eye and has withdrawn from the fight, opening the door for Ugas as replacement. “We’re excited that Manny has agreed to move forward and Ugas has stepped up to defend his title against the man who once held it,” said promoter Tom Brown. Ugas was in the co-feature and had been preparing to fight on this date so he’s ready. It’s a major challenge because now he has to make his first title defense against a boxing legend in a career-defining fight.”
It’s actually not the first time the De Guias will be involved in a sports project. “We did the International Premier Tennis League for two consecutive years in 2014 and 2015,” said Renen. “Participating players were the biggest stars of tennis at the time like Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova, Andy Murray, Ana Ivanovic and more. Ovation Productions wasn’t the promoter but was merely hired to mount the event. We handled production and design of all on-court elements, technical supervision, set-up of broadcast area, venue security, procurement of equipment, importation of equipment and the like. We were delighted to learn that the things we did in Manila were detailed in a production manual for other countries to follow.”
Renen said Tap Digital Media Ventures owns five cable channels TapTV, TapSPORTS, TapEDGE, Premier Tennis and Premier Football aired on SkyCable, Cignal, Air Cable, GSat, CableLink in addition to 70 provincial cable affiliates. “We recently launched our app TapGO, a multi-device streaming service featuring our sports and entertainment contents where you can watch Live Sports, Live TV and On Demand series and movies,” he added. “We air programs such as Premier League, ATP and WTA tours, WWE Raw and NBL along with news, reality and drama series like Today Show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Love Island USA, Chicago PD, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Falon, Jay Leno’s Garage and many more.”
Renen said acquiring the rights for the Pacquiao-Ugas fight was a coup. “We’re extremely excited as this is a milestone in Senator’s career as a boxing legend,” he said. “It could be his last fight. As in all Pacquiao fights, the world will be watching as he has quite a global following. Everybody wants him to win. Aside from his fight against Thurman, Cel and I watched his fights against Cotto in 2009 and Marquez in 2011. Securing the exclusive broadcast/exhibit license of this fight was important for us as it’s a perfect vehicle to promote our five cable channels and also our TapGO app.”
As for Ovation, Renen said it was launched in 1979 with a concert featuring Leif Garrett. The company has staged sell-out acts like Tears For Fears, Sting, Ed Sheeran, One Direction (a co-promotion), Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and many others. Back in 1981, Ovation brought the highly popular band America to Manila.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Joaquin Henson.
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