ABS-CBN Sports was a sports division of the Philippine media conglomerate ABS-CBN Corporation, which aired some of the notable sporting events in the Philippines.
ABS-CBN Sports began in 1998 as the main broadcaster for the network-backed basketball league Metropolitan Basketball Association which introduced the home-and-away play format in the Philippine basketball landscape. Simultaneous with that (shortly before the MBA collapsed), it acquired the broadcast rights to the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) and National Collegiate Athletic Association (Philippines) (NCAA) collegiate basketball leagues, which bolstered Studio 23's ratings and at the same time aligned further toward the said channel's programming thrust to the youth.
ABS-CBN Sports also supplant contents to their sports channel S+A aired on UHF Channel 23 (main channel) and SkyCable Channel 166 (HD channel). The division also maintains their official website, sports.abs-cbn.com, one of the top sports news websites in the Philippines.
On July 16, 2020, the final buzzer sounded as the staff and employees of the sports division became part of a series of retrenchments, following the July 10 vote of the House Committee on Legislative Franchises denied the network a congressional franchise, officially ceased its operations on August 31.
Following the closure, several sports rights were transferred to the different TV channels, especially the NBA, ONE Championship, UAAP and PVL now being with One Sports, Despite the closure, ABS-CBN Sports continued to deliver sports update on digital platforms.
Notable programs[]
- The Score
- Sports U (under ABS-CBN News)
- Upfront
Sports leagues[]
Local[]
- University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) (now with One Sports)
- National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
- Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball Association (MPBL)
International[]
- NBA (also with Solar Sports) (now with One Sports)