PBA mulls legal suit vs M Bank for TV row

The Philippine Basketball Association is pursuing legal action against Manila Bank, which has refused to honor a Letter of Credit covering NBN-IBC’s unpaid financial obligation now worth P134 million.

At the same time, the PBA has demanded payment of penalties of P60 million from IBC-13 for the latter’s failure to broadcast the last 20 play dates of PBA games.

A reliable source said the PBA is now considering elevating the case to the Central Bank after Manila Bank allegedly said it was not honoring the LC.

Answering a letter of the PBA a few days ago, Manila Bank made clear its decision disallowing withdrawals against the Letter of Credit since the TV consortium had not complied with bank requirements.

The PBA has so far received only P56 million of the P200 million due from its broadcasting partner last season.

The TV consortium paid its dues to the PBA up to October in the form of assigned receivables from advertising deals. But most of the receivables remain as they were up to present, according to The STAR source.

With all of these problems, the PBA board is likely to terminate its deal with its current broadcasting partner and study other options, like an in-house production of its games.

The NBN-IBC consortium gained the right to cover the PBA games for 2003-2005 on a P670-million bid sweetened by a parallel coverage package over NBN-4 and IBC-13.

But IBC-13 had backed out of deal, discontinuing its telecast of the games because of huge losses arising from non-payment of airtime by the consortium’s marketing arm Summit Sports World.

Following its withdrawal from the program, the PBA imposed a fine of P3 million for every play date the IBC-13 coverage has missed. It has now reached P60 million.