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The Philippine Basketball Association confirmed on Tuesday that Solar Sports indeed asked for a cut in the franchise fee indicated in its rich contract with the league, but as a tradeoff for adhering to a proposed lockout clause.

“Solar Sports said they were willing to follow (restrictions for brands in competition with the PBA teams) in exchange for a lower franchise fee,” said PBA commissioner Renauld “Sonny” Barrios during Tuesday’s PSA Forum at Shakey’s UN Avenue branch in Manila.

“Without committing to a discount, we asked them by how much should the franchise fee be lowered, and they said 25 percent.”

Solar Sports on Monday denied a Philippine Daily Inquirer report that it had sought a 25-percent relief from its P498-million franchise fee because the lockout clause in its three-year deal largely limited the cable giant’s revenue pool.

A lockout clause restricts Solar Sports from dealing with brands directly in competition with the 10 member-teams of the PBA.

“We never asked for a discount,” Solar Sports chief operating officer Peter Chanliong was quoted by reports as saying on Monday.

“We respect the provisions in our contract. But the PBA asked if we could do a lockout and at what cost. That’s what the discussion was all about.”

Solar Sports chair William Tieng, in a message to the UAAP board, said “after a protracted discussion, the PBA made a recent request to Solar that, in exchange for a reduction of rights granted (to impose a lockout), what will Solar consider as a fair reduction of the license fee? If you wish to check the veracity of my clarification, please call commissioner Sonny Barrios.”

Solar is bidding to cover the UAAP games.

“They have a different interpretation, we have a different interpretation,” Barrios said.

The one thing that both parties agree on is that there, indeed, is a “running discussion with PBA and Solar regarding the lockout clause of our contract.”

Barrios said that Solar Sports did not ask for financial relief outright but in the context of having to adhere to the lockout clause of the league. But he said it was Solar Sports that broached the idea of a discount.

“They brought up the discount as a condition for them following the lockout clause,” Barrios said in Filipino.

(Source: inquirer.net)