Some thoughts on the Pacquiao vs Hatton coverage

I'm sure a lot of us here took the time to watch this fight. It's probably going down the books as one of the biggest win by our very own Pacman over a fighter who's rightfully hailed as one of the best in his division.

However short it was, I can very well say that I enjoyed listening to the fight. I would've loved to have listened and watched, but alas, I didn't want to shell out P500 (for what turned out to be a mere 359 sec. of boxing time) to watch at SM, and GMA 7 took too long to show it. Too long in fact that it was in youtube long before it was ever on my TV screen.

I know I already criticized GMA on one of my last entries, and while I'm not singling them out, they were after all responsible for the airing of Manny's last 2 fights (and doing the exact same things) that I couldn't help but call them out.

My problem? The commercials.

I know those ads are necessary, important even in keeping TV free. I understand that there's a price to pay for exclusivity. I get all that, but this is getting ridiculous! There were more commercials than the number of times I actually saw Pacquiao and Hatton!

They even took to breaking apart it in silly segments:
Hatton's entry. Commercial break (hereon referred to as CB). Pacquiao's entry. CB. Pacquiao getting to the ring and praying. CB. The referee giving instructions. CB... you get the point.

And not just the Pacman vs Hitman fight too! Even the undercard matches between whatshisname and whathisface whose outcome we couldn't care less about were given the same royal treatment! Further pushing back the main event!

I'm pretty sure that somewhere there's a law that states the proportion of commercial per actual programming. And I'm pretty sure it's not 1:1 (or in this case 2:1). Can't they think of a way to still credit their sponsors without messing up the program? Like have the commentators mention them casually every now and then. Or have their logos appear on screen. Anything but being left to the mercy of those texters who can't hold off knowing the results of the fight.

And really, does anybody even watch those commercials? I know I don't. Are they bombarding us with that many with the hopes that they can luck out on us accidentally seeing some of them? Won't it be better if they just show 2 or 3 short ads good for maybe a minute or a minute and half in between, thus encouraging us to watch them lest we miss the start of the next round. They can then charge a premium for those air time because those would be special. Something people actually watched.

Of course, its entirely possible that they don't care what we think. For now, I've decided that I won't be watching any of their future coverages until they sort this thing out.

Update: Sad state of local TV (or Totoy Bato screws John Q over)

I'm updating this to show cleaner clips instead of my sorry excuse for screen captures. I kept it down there though if you prefer torture. Anyway, here's a John Q clip that shows the scene where he decides to commit suicide, and the scene where he says goodbye to his son.

Yep, Denzel was great!

Now for the rip offers:

Urgghhh right? Well there's more, here's part 2 where he says goodbye to his daughter (the complete clip of the screen capture I posted last night lest you think I merely nitpicked).

To whoever is responsible for this crap: Di namin kayo tatantanan! (Ok, so I couldn't resist ripping off Mike.)


N.B. Special thanks to Giehar who gave me these links to the said Totoy Bato clips.

The sad state of local TV (specifically GMA soaps)

A little over a year ago, when GMA 7 bought the rights to air a Kim Sam Soon adaptation here in the Philippines, I asked my friend why the heck we need to do something so inane? It's not as if we don't have writers who can write original story lines with much more interesting, and maybe even fresher plot points. I still don't think the adaptation was a good idea (it was a painfully terrible adaptation and Regine was just plain ridiculous!), but I withdraw my point. Perhaps our writers, at least those that are employed by GMA are incapable of one original thought, not even to save their lives.

I've always detested watching soaps, not because they're cheesy (which they are), nor because they're not entertaining (which admittedly, they sometimes are... think Encantadia), but because they seem to tell and re-tell the same story using varying number of characters and degree of intelligence. I never thought they'd stoop so low as to actually copy whole plot points and stage almost the exact same scene from foreign shows. I guess I give them too much credit.

This evening, I inadvertently saw Totoy Bato (which happens often when my mom's watching tv). At this junction of the show the titular character played by Robin Padilla has just taken a hospital hostage and his terms are simple, give my son a heart transplant. Sounds familiar? If you've seen Denzel Washington's John Q then it should, because that's the exact same plot. It doesn't stop there though, they actually had the audacity to copy key scenes from the film, merely translating the lines and changing some names.

Short background: At this point, John Q's son needs the heart or he dies soon. The scene preceding this showed John deciding to commit suicide and convinced the hostaged doctor to use his heart after he does. He's here to say goodbye to his son. Here's the clip from John Q:

I'm sure you'll agree that Denzel was fantastic.

Here are a few clips from Totoy Bato (definitely ripped off from John Q). I recorded this via my phone hence the poor quality and I couldn't figure out how to make longer clips until after the scene was done hence its chopped format. I will post only 3 clips but I'm sure you'll get the idea.


Meron. Di ka pinabayaan ng guardian angel mo.
Yes. Your guardian angel didn't leave you.



Iba ang may pera... lahat... lahat pinakikinggan ka kung may pera ka. Gusto ko lumaban ka... at mahalin mo ang kapwa mo.
It's different when you have money. Everybody listens to you when you have money. Keep fighting... love others.


Hindi kita iiwan. Lagi mo kong kasama. Mahal kita... mahal na mahal kita.
I'll never leave you. I love you very much.

Pretty sickening really. And it doesn't even makes sense in our setting because we don't do heart transplant in the Philippines. Maybe they should just keep importing those ready made korea-novelas, they're probably cheaper, and some of them are actually quite amusing.