This article is about a Philippine sports programming division of TV5. For the television network of the same name, see
One Sports (TV channel). For a programming division of TVNZ in New Zealand, see
1 Sport. For the Indian television channel, see
1Sports. For the Australian television channel formerly known as One, see
10 Bold.
"Sports5" redirects here. For the Israeli group of television channels, see
Sport 5. For a defunct international sports rights marketing agency, see
Sportfive. For the British radio programming block on BBC Radio 5 also known as "Sport on 5", see
5 Live Sport.
"ESPN5" redirects here. For the Brazilian channel, see
ESPN (Brazil).
One Sports Sports5
Launched
February 22, 2004 (2004-02-22) (as ABC Sports)
May 5, 2011 (2011-05-05) (as the First Sports5)
October 12, 2017 (2017-10-12) (as ESPN5)
March 8, 2020 (2020-03-08) (as One Sports)
November 5, 2023 (2023-11-05) (as the Second Sports5)
One Sports (formerly ABC Sports from 2004 to 2008, Sports5 from 2011 to 2017 (and 2023 to present as an alternate name for One Sports) and ESPN5 from 2017 to 2020), currently rebranding to Sports5, is the sports division of
TV5 Network, Inc. and jointly-operated with sister company
Cignal TV. One Sports supplies and airs major sporting events in the
Philippines and the world for free-to-air TV channels
TV5,
RPTV,
One Sports channel,
Cignal-exclusive channels
One Sports+,
PBA Rush,
NBA TV Philippines and
UAAP Varsity Channel, and online esports streaming channel GG Network.
Its flagship program is the
Philippine Basketball Association, the world's second oldest professional
basketball league, since it acquired the television rights from 2004 to 2008 and again from 2011 until now.
History
ABC Sports
The network's sports division, then known as ABC Sports, was established in 2004 as a result of ABC-5's acquisition of broadcast rights to the
Philippine Basketball Association. The telecasts were known as the PBA on ABC, after the disbandment of the
broadcasting consortium between
NBN-4 and
IBC-13. Aside from PBA, ABC Sports also broadcast volleyball games and local boxing bouts, as well as
NBA basketball and
WWE wrestling matches (in partnership with
Solar Entertainment). But after ABC rebranded to TV5 in August 2008, the network still managed to cover the
2008 PBA Fiesta Conference Finals, though it is under the auspices of ABC's blocktimer
MPB Primedia, Inc. After which, broadcast rights for PBA, NBA, and WWE were then moved to
Solar Sports and
RPN starting in the 2008–09 season.
TV5 Sports
In 2009, ABC Sports, still under management of MPB Primedia, was renamed as TV5 Sports in the interim (does not identify as such), in which the network acquired broadcasting rights to the
ASEAN Basketball League (the Philippine team in the league,
AirAsia Philippine Patriots, was by-then managed by ABC/TV5 owner Antonio "Tonyboy" Cojuangco, Jr.), U.S. boxing matches, and others.
In 2010, ABL's broadcasting contract with TV5 expired, after TV5 was acquired by
MediaQuest Holdings, and was moved to IBC-13 and later,
ABS-CBN Sports and Action.
Sports5
In 2011,
TV5 and
IBC, inked a blocktime deal which subsequently became
AKTV. It was launched on May 5, 2011, through a marathon held at the Mall Of Asia Grounds in Pasay.
Until its flagship primetime sports block's closure in 2013 due to high blocktime costs and poor ratings, most of its programs are aired on IBC through its programming block AKTV. From June 2013 onwards, most of its sports coverages are shown on
TV5,
AksyonTV and
Hyper. It is headquartered at
TV5 Media Center, Reliance cor. Sheridan st.,
Mandaluyong.
Sports5 is the official TV partner of the Olympic Games in the Philippines from 2014 to 2016. In 2016, Sports5 acquired the Philippine broadcast rights (from
ABS-CBN Sports) to air
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) on free TV and satellite.[1]
ESPN5
On October 12, 2017, TV5 announced that it had reached a partnership with
ESPN International to re-brand Sports 5 as ESPN5; the re-branding took effect the next day, coinciding with game 1 of the
PBA Governors' Cup final. As part of the relationship, the channel acquired domestic rights to some of
ESPN's U.S. and international programming, including classic
boxing matches aired on
ESPN Classic (also includes some matches from
ESPN2's Friday Night Fights),
IndyCar Series, the
NFL,
ESPN Films' documentary series 30 for 30 and Nine for IX, Around the Horn, Pardon the Interruption, U.S. college sports, and the
X Games. Although ESPN is a U.S. NBA broadcaster, the league has a separate rights deal with
ABS-CBN (under partnership with
Solar Sports). The operation includes a local version of ESPN's flagship studio program SportsCenter, SportsCenter Philippines (which premiered on December 17, 2017), and collaboration between ESPN and TV5 on digital content—having launched a localized version of
ESPN.com and the streaming ESPN Player service on January 31, 2018. The partnership marked the return of the ESPN brand to the country since the replacement of
ESPN Philippines with
Fox Sports Asia.[2][3][4][5] Meanwhile, the re-launch as ESPN5 also caused the delays of many of
Viva Television's planned productions for TV5 to late 2020 and early 2021 (especially Masked Singer Pilipinas and Kagat ng Dilim).
One Sports
On March 8, 2020, ESPN5 ceased to exist on television and was rebranded as One Sports (named after the then pay television channel of the same name), as both
5 and the new One Sports channel decided to not carry any ESPN5-branded programming on its schedule. The partnership continued however both on online as the ESPN5 webpage it was active and served as the de facto One Sports homepage in the Philippines and on-air as ESPN programs continue to broadcast on both 5 (later reverted to TV5) and One Sports until October 13, 2021, as the new TV5 Network management will no longer renew a contract with ESPN due to massive negative feedbacks by the fans of the network's entertainment programming against former TV5 Network President and CEO
Chot Reyes as well as poor ratings of its sports programming on TV5 and loss of advertisers' support.[6] At the same day,
5 Plus was relaunched as a
dedicated channel of One Sports which was moved from being an exclusive-pay television channel to free-to-air and eventually taking over its channel space. Meanwhile, its original pay television counterpart on Cignal was rebranded as One Sports+.
Boom Gonzalez (PVL and UAAP Basketball and Volleyball play-by-play, NBA Hype Host, School Spirit Host, The Game Weekend host)
Ryan Gregorio (PBA on One Sports, PBA Rush Lead Basketball analyst, Numbers Host)
Eric Altamirano (PBA on One Sports, PBA Rush, PBA 3x3 Basketball analyst)
Topex Robinson (PBA on One Sports, PBA Rush Basketball analyst, Jumpball Host)
Bea Daez-Fabros (UAAP Basketball play-by-play, The Game co-host)
Mico Halili (Creative Director for sports program and sports digital properties,
Cignal TV, Hotseat host, Glory Days Host, UAAP Basketball play-by-play)
Quinito Henson (PBA on One Sports Lead Basketball analyst)