KVH and Pilipinas Global Network Limited to Bring Philippine Basketball Association Game Coverage to Merchant Ships
Dec. 14, 2017
KVH Industries, Inc., and Pilipinas Global Network Limited
(PGNL) announced a deal to bring coverage of Philippine
Basketball Association (PBA) full games to merchant ships.
Under the terms of the agreement, KVH will
distribute PBA games for the 43rd
and 44th
PBA seasons, which begin with the Philippine Cup on December 17,
2017. A men’s professional basketball league, the PBA was the
first such league in Asia and its popularity throughout the
region is widespread. However, many of those fans miss out on
seeing games because they serve onboard commercial vessels;
throughout the global shipping industry, Filipinos comprise the
single greatest number of seafarers.
The PBA games will be delivered via satellite to vessels
subscribed to KVH’s SPORTSlinkTM
and IP-MobileCastTM
content delivery service for multicasting news, sports, and
entertainment at sea. Onboard, seafarers will be able to access
the full PBA games on mobile devices, desktops, and televisions,
enjoying the basketball action without adding communications
costs or affecting vessel communications performance.
“PGNL is devoted to bringing the PBA closer to every Filipino
overseas. This partnership with KVH is a step toward reaching
out to seafarers who would want to experience the PBA while
they’re away from home,” says Ernesto D. Sta. Maria, Jr., PGNL
president and CEO. “We work hard to make sure that more
Filipinos all over the world get to enjoy quality sports content
from PGNL.”
Additionally, KVH will include more PBA
reporting in its current SPORTSlink coverage of basketball news
from around the world. KVH will also add a new, year-round
basketball special edition to its NEWSlinkTM
Print service, which provides news to thousands of seafarers on
vessels worldwide.
“We are very excited to work with PGNL to bring the PBA to the
maritime market,” says Candice Pascal, KVH vice president for
content acquisition. “We are committed to providing content
experiences that will boost morale and help seafarers feel more
connected to home. This is the first opportunity crew will have
to really engage with the PBA. Professional basketball is a
popular sport among seafarers, and we are confident that
watching the games will enhance their time at sea.”
KVH is an innovator in delivering news, sports, and
entertainment content to vessels at sea, having introduced the
IP-MobileCast service in 2014 as a solution for affordable
satellite delivery of large multimedia files to ships. The
patented IP-MobileCast service is notable for several
technological advancements: Content is delivered over the top of
KVH’s mini-VSAT BroadbandSM
network so there is no charge for the delivery, only for the
content itself; the multicasting transmission does not affect
the vessel’s onboard data speed; and the content can be stored
on an onboard server and made accessible to multiple devices.
