The platform will continue to be the home of the league’s collegiate sporting events.
On Monday, June 30, the University Athletics Association of the Philippines and leading pay television platform Cignal TV entered into a new five-year partnership.
In a contract signing held at the University of Santo Tomas, the host school of Season 88, executives from the Mediaquest-owned company and members of the UAAP Commitee were present.
The deal, which renews the parties’ commitment since 2020, means that games—especially the popular men’s basketball and women’s volleyball matches—would continue to be aired and streamed via Cignal’s channels and services.
Effectively, it will remain as the official broadcaster from Season 89 (2026-27) to 93 (2031-32).
Under Cignal are the free-to-air channel One Sports, the pay TV-exclusive UAAP Varsity Channel, Cignal Play, and the Pilipinas Live app.
Meanwhile, the UAAP Season 88 is scheduled to begin in September with the theme “Strength In Motion, Hope In Action.”
Prior to 2020, the UAAP games were previously handled by ABS-CBN Sports for 20 years since 2000.
However, its contract with ABS-CBN expired in May 2020, which was also coincidentally the same month that the network shut its terrestrial network, including the Sports+Action channel.
However, as things turned out from bad to worst, with the ABS-CBN Sports group eventually being axed altogether during the major retrenchment exercise in August of that year, the UAAP entertained offers from rival stations such as GMA and TV5.
Ultimately, the UAAP opted to move to TV5 and Cignal in July 2020, with the partnership officially starting the year after with the 84th season that was held entirely at the height of COVID-19 restrictions.
Aside from the collegiate association, Cignal also holds rights to other properties like the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) and the Premier Volleyball League (PVL), among others.