MANILA, Philippines – ESPN5’s sports website, one of the major sports news portals in the Philippines, ended operations early Wednesday.
This was confirmed by some of the website’s staff members in a series of posts on Twitter.
You all know https://t.co/wNyqmI74ob right? It will be around till 11:59pm tonight. At midnight, it will no longer exist. There will still be ESPN content available tomorrow, but the partnership with TV5 ends tonight. I am proud to have worked with some of the best. Cheers!
— Charlie T. Cuna (@CharlieC) October 12, 2021
Sharing some thoughts on https://t.co/H2Rq8TnGMm’s last day of providing coverage for Philippine sports (and a screenshot of the last local piece published under the ESPN5 brand. Huge thanks to the ever gracious @manilacone!)
See you guys around and thanks for supporting us! pic.twitter.com/WfiY2e2JXq— Eros Villanueva (@erosvillanueva_) October 12, 2021
As some of you already know, today is the last day of https://t.co/B4wyl2lXMN.
— Philip Martin Matel (@philipptionary) October 12, 2021
Learning this news came as a complete surprise to me and my colleagues for we didn't know of our future in sportswriting.
Sad to see the ESPN5 site go. Thank you to everyone I got to work with there @Sid_Ventura @CharlieC @NoelZarate @carlo_pamintuan @chuck_araneta @juttsulit @paodelrosario @janbballesteros @richava @erosvillanueva_ @philipptionary @charmieness @yo_sarmenta https://t.co/Png4l8Dhvu
— JC Ansis (@jcansis) October 13, 2021
As early as March 2020, ESPN International did not renew its content partnership agreement with TV5/Cignal, prompting the latter to rebrand its sports channel to One Sports and drop ESPN5-branded programming on its lineup.
The partnership, however, continued online as tv5.espn.com remained operational with local sports news until the staff members confirmed they are severing ties with the website late Tuesday.
While the website tv5.espn.com remains live online as of posting time, it is now devoid of local content.
A source who requested anonymity told Philstar.com that plans are underway to launch a standalone One Sports website but haven’t been executed yet.
TV5’s partnership with ESPN became official on October 12, 2017, with the former acquiring the domestic rights to some of the latter’s US and international shows. These include boxing matches on ESPN Classic, races on the IndyCar Series, and some NFL games — including highly anticipated Super Bowl matches.