BY NOLI CORTEZ

PRO league television rights bidders Solar Sports and ABS-CBN will have to wait at least five more days for the decision of the PBA Board.

After a lengthy deliberation yesterday, during which the governors were bombarded with facts from AC Nielsen and Mindshare media agency, the board decided to spend more time deliberating on the bids of the two networks, with a final decision expected to be handed down Tuesday next week.

Commissioner Sonny Barrios said the board members were deluged "with a lot of data" from the presentation made yesterday, prompting them to adjourn without a formal decision.

"The board wanted more time to evaluate the process, to chew on all the data that bombarded them," said Barrios, adding a decision could be handed down when the board convenes anew next Tuesday.

Barrios presented the board with his own evaluation of the bids made by the two networks, before representatives of AC Nielsen and Mindshare media agency, commissioned to make studies on the respective bids of ABS-CBN and Solar Sports, took their turns.

"We wanted informative data from varied perspectives and Mindshare was able to come up with a study that is complimentary to what Nielsen presented," Barrios explained.

"There were some discussions among the governors, but there was no formal decision yet," said board chairman Tony Chua of Red Bull.

Nielsen was commissioned to show the ratings of the current bidders relative to each other, as well as those of current TV coveror ABC-5 and past rights holders Channels 4, 9 and 13.

ABS-CBN is reportedly offering Studio 23, with replays at ABS-CBN 2, while Solar Sports is presenting RPN-9 as partner to exclusively televise the games.

The Lopez-owned ABS-CBN network is offering a four-year package with an option to sign a three-year contract-extension at the end of the initial deal while Solar Sports is looking for a straight-up, three-year contract.

Around P160 million is reportedly being offered by both outfits for the 2008-09 season alone.

ABC-5 has backed off from the bidding process.

The board also discussed other topics, among them Barrios’ aim to present clearer guidelines on assessing and judging flagrant fouls.

"Being raised near the end of the meeting, this was not thoroughly discussed. But the Board, in principle, gave me blanket authority to come up with the guidelines," said Barrios.

Barrios is bent on instituting an automatic review of the game tape, to enable referees to classify what fouls were committed.

Already, the PBA is using four cameras to cover all the game situations from virtually all angles and is set to bring in more video recorders for replays.

"I will write it up and the governors are expected to approve it on our next meeting," Barrios said. "Sila rin naman ang may gusto nang ganoon."