Solar Sports to share coverage of Pacquiao v Mayweather in Philippines

Pay-television broadcaster Solar Sports has sublicensed rights in the Philippines for the upcoming world welterweight boxing clash between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Junior to free-to-air broadcasters ABS-CBN, GMA-7 and TV5.

The deal will ensure that the May 2 fight is shown live on the three biggest free-to-air media platforms in the Philippines, as well as the Cignal and Sky Cable pay-per-view channels and the Solar Sports pay-television channel.

Earlier this week, the event’s promoter, Top Rank, revealed that Solar Sports had acquired rights for the fight for a fee of $10m (€9.5m).

Pacquiao has an exclusive rights deal with GMA-7, but the broadcaster waived its right to exclusivity after a personal request from the Filipino fighter, according to GMA-7 executive vice-president Felipe Yalong.

“The important thing is that Manny himself played an important role in putting this thing together,” Solar Sports chief executive Wilson Tieng said, according to the Rappler news website.