On October 12 , 2017 , TV5 announced that it had reached a partnership with ESPN International to re-brand Sports 5 as '' ' ESPN5 ' '' ; the re-branding took effect the next day , coinciding with game 1 of the PBA Governors ' Cup final . As part of the relationship , the channel acquired domestic rights to some of ESPN 's U.S. and international programming , including boxing , IndyCar Series , the NFL , U.S. college sports , and the X Games . Although ESPN is a U.S. NBA broadcaster , the league has a separate rights deal with ABS-CBN . The operation includes a local version of ESPN 's flagship studio program '' SportsCenter '' , '' SportsCenter Philippines '' ( which premiered on December 17 , 2017 ) , and collaboration between ESPN and TV5 on digital content — having launched a localized version of ESPN.com and the streaming ESPN Player service on January 31 , 2018 . The partnership marked the return of the ESPN brand to the country since the replacement of ESPN Philippines with Fox Sports Asia
PBA Governors ' Cup
2017 PBA Governors' Cup
ESPN5