United Football League partners with AKTV; signs 5-year TV deal

United Football League, a local football league in the Philippines has just recently signed a five-year contract with AKTV, a local sports channel as it aims to bolster the game in which the AZKALS have helped kickstarted.

In the contract between AKTV and UFL, there will be two live UFL matches that will be shown every Saturday beginning October 8, 2011 with the televised matches played at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium and non-televised games played at the University of Makati.

The season kicks off with the UFL Cup where 28 teams, including 13 guest squads, will compete for slots in the UFL’s Division II.

Group A: Nomads FC, Baguio FC, Union Internacional FC, Lions FC

Group B: Loyola Meralco Sparks FC, Internacionale FC, Agila FC, Team Socceroo FC

Group C: Global FC, Pachanga FC, Stallions FC, Cebu Queen City FC

Group D: Kaya-Cignal FC, ABC Stars FC, Schwarz, Diliman Victory Liner FC

Group E: Philippine Air Force FC, Philippine Navy FC, Manila All-Japan FC, Laos FC

Group F: Green Archers United FC, Dolphins United FC, Pasargad FC, Forza FC

Group G: Philippine Army FC, Manhur FC, Sunken Garden United FC, and Garuda FC PH

Different AZKALS players will be distributed amongst the different clubs participating in the league.

Loyola Spark FC will have Phil and James Younghusband with former national teammates Mark and Matthew Hartmann.

The Azkals’ Fil-Spanish striker Angel Guirado and Fil-Iranian Misagh Bahadoran will be donning the colors of Global FC.

Kaya FC will have Aly Borromeo, Anton del Rosario, Jason Sabio, Yannick Tuason, and Nate Burkey in uniform.

Philippine Air Force FC has scoring threats Chieffy Caligdong and Ian Araneta in harness while rival Philippine Army FC features Roel Gener and Nestor Margarse.

This will definitely be a fun league to watch as we see the different AZKALS players compete against one another. And with the continued support of the public and the Filipino people,
football is getting a much needed shot in the arm, as it popularity continues to grow in this basketball crazy country.

Local News: Uniliver Suspends TV ads on 'all game shows'

Recent development spurring from the 'child abuse' controversy that TV5's Willing Willie received, UNILEVER Philippines, Inc. a multinational corporation and one of the country's leading producer and maker of household products such as soaps, detergents, shampoo etc. is suspending all of their advertisements placed on "all reality-based live game shows across all (television) networks." Unilever mentioned in a press release that "the suspension will be in place until they have observed a stricter and objective self-regulatory guidelines across networks and proper enforcement by the relevant government agencies of existing content regulations"

This is a nice move from one of the companies that can be considered a lifeblood of major TV networks in terms of advertising. Also with the move to suspend their ads, Unilever would also like to see the Movie Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) strenghten their regulations about contents across all live programs, and making sure that TV networks are clear about the potential sanctions for erring programs. I am sure there will be changes in the policies and guidelines of TV networks now that the Willing Willie issue has blown out of proportion. And besides who wouldn't want Unilever pour in millions of pesos in advertising in their stations? Now its just a matter of who implements the changes first (though TV5 have already mentioned that they have already created a regulatory body to oversee this type of issues see my related article about this. http://ch1nelas.blogspot.com/2011/04/entertainment-tv5-feeling-heat-of.html )

Who would have thought that a controversy involving one TV network would redefine the landscape of live programs on network TV? Talking about Unilever flexing their muscles. Good job ei! :)

Entertainment: TV5 feeling the heat of Willie Revillame's latest controversy

Is Willie Revillame the proper noun of CONTROVERSIAL? Damn! Everywhere he goes he is always at the center of it and now TV5 is feeling the heat already with yet another controversy of one of their most prized acquisition.

Willie Revillame is undergoing another barrage of criticism from all sector of the society for the alleged child abuse incident that he did with one of the contestants from his prime time show, Willing Willie.

In case you haven't heard, the Movie Television Review and classification Board (MTRCB) has issued a statement against ABC TV5 regarding the incident that happened last March 12, 2011 wherein a six year old boy Jan-Jan Estrada dancing in tears on Willing Willie to a cheering studio audience.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Commission on Human Rights and other groups such as the United Nations Childrens Education Fund (UNICEF) have already called for reforms in television programming involving children.

In response to the ongoing controversy, TV5 mentioned that they will follow stricter guidelines on the appearance and performance of minors on all of their programs and even created a new Standards Advisory Board composed of creative directors, psychologists and a childrens communication expert. The move is a welcome sight to make sure that no minors are exploited by any shows just for the sake of rating and entertainment.

Though I think the move failed to impress MTRCB since what they wanted ABC TV5 to do is impose punitive sanctions on the program that ranges from a reprimand up to cancellation of the program (which i don't think TV5 would ever do).

I'm sure ABS-CBN must be smiling on the side with all of this controversies that is hounding their former cash cow.