Fair Play: Azkals! Your story for history in the Lions' den


I GOT the shock of my life a week ago, when I was trying to find a replay of the Philippines' matches in the AFF Suzuki Cup and couldn't find my favorite channels.  Crap, I thought. This must be that channel realignment thing Skycable has been touting.

 When I sit in front of the TV, muscle memory automatically dials 25, for my favorite docus, then I'll surf up to 45 for the sports channels. It is no longer possible.

 What crappy cable company would do this to its customers?


 Last Tuesday, I learned why. In a press conference, Sky Cable explained the move as part of its Organized Channel experience, which in short means, the channels are now grouped by the 100s by genre. That basically means my fingers has to learn some nuew muscle memory, instead of pressing two buttons, it's now three to get to 301, for the first of six (or 12 if you got a higher plan) sports channels.  And if the game has you a bit nervy, you can always press 901 for the lone religios channel in the 900 group.

 (I also learned, too, that Pacquiao-Marquez 4 was their highest earning PPV, just ahead of the dela Hoya and Hatton fights.  And they expect numbers for a fifth fight will hit the roof.)

Why the group by the 100s though?  Well, here's a good thing.  In the previous setup, from Channels 1 to 125 (was it?), every time Sky adds one channel, especially if it puts it in the lower 20s, everything changes.

 With the present setup, and this is what I really like, for sports, they have 317 to 399 open. 

 It's a shrewd move, too, in the new setup, you'd see the "no right to access scrambled channel" so you'd know what you are missing. And for footie fans, it's Goal TV 1 and Goal TV 2, I swear every time I pass by those channels, I could hear a Spanish commentator screaming, "GOAAAL.....LIONEL MESSIIII."  

 Yep, two more footie channels for fans who want to watch the other leagues aside from the EPL, the staple of ESPN and Star Sports. 

 But for now, I hope all PHL footie fans’ attention will be on Star Sports or Aksyon TV for the next three games or so because that would mean a good campaign by the Azkals in the Suzuki Cup.

 By the way, it’s unfortunately that some of the Pinoy fans who lined up early for the second leg against the Lions didn’t get to buy the 400 tickets allocated for them last Monday. Yes, it’s for away fans but who got them? At least one Singaporean, who, according to the Pinoys, was selling the $10 tickets at $50.  

 Nice. Very nice.  I hope there will be a lot of Singaporean fans in the second leg, and besides an 8,000 hostile crowd is paltry compared to the 40,000 in Vietnam and I hope, too, the Azkals will show these fans what they are really capable of, especially in the Lions’ den.

 This is your chance to make history, seize it! I want the Azkals to leave the stadium with their heads up high, as if they have just skinned the lion alive and are wearing its fur as spoils. (Sorry Peta).

 Azkals, this is the chance to write YOUR STORY in HISTORY!

 Seize it!

 Make us proud!

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