My interest in Philippine basketball was revived when I was given tickets to watch the FIBA Asia Basketball games live at the MOA Arena last year. Man, those days were memorable, winning game after game, most especially that spectacular win over South Korea for the first time after more than 20 years. Our Gilas Basketball team became my inspiration since then to never give up and play with pure heart.
I always try to watch everything related to Gilas, whether they were old games or documentaries, because they just never stop inspiring me especially whenever I feel low. Last month they joined tune-up games with other FIBA World Cup contenders and I was pumped to watch them all. Alas, I got confused with the schedule of the games and I was mostly out of the time doing my work elsewhere. I do have a TV phone but I kinda misplaced it, so that’s not an option for me either.
Last week, a few days before the opening game of the FIBA World Cup, Smart Communications announced a new app called Viewstream. The app lets anyone watch shows on TV5 and AksyonTV as well as the previous and current games of Gilas Pilipinas. I was out again last Saturday and won’t be home to watch the game so I downloaded the app from the Googe Play Store. Download was easy and thank goodness it’s free! I’m glad that I got a Samsung Galaxy S5 from Smart a couple of months back because the app is only available for Android devices as of the moment.
Registration for the app is required and it asked for my Smart / Sun Cellular / Talk ‘N Text mobile number and password. After completing the registration, I went ahead to check out the shows being shown on TV5 and AksyonTV. The Gilas VS. Croatia game was scheduled to start in an hour and a half but I wanted to watch some Gilas basketball. Fortunately, the app shows all the channels’ program schedules and found out their tune up game with Australia is about to be shown. While watching programs on TV5 and AksyonTV are for free, the Viewstream channel has a subscription fee of only Php 15 for 24 hours. It will be charged on top of my postpaid bill and for prepaid subscribers, the fee will be deducted instead. Question, why pay Php 15 when I can watch the game live on TV5 for free? Simple, if you don’t like watching commercials, then I suggest that you stick on the Viewstream app because it’s commercial free! The Viewstream channel also shows replays of Gilas’ FIBA World Cup matches, tune-up games and their documentaries. For me, Php 15 is so worth it!
For the next several hours, I was glued to my Samsung Galaxy S5’s screen. I watched the Gilas-Australia game while having my haircut at Bruno’s, then transferred to Starbucks where I watched their match with Croatia. Oh, and by the way, because my Galaxy S5 is connected to Smart LTE, video streaming was almost flawless and I only encountered minor hiccups with my connection. The Starbucks I stayed at was quiet and had a few customers, but with my headphones on, I felt I was in Seville, cheering along with the Filipino fans there. I would occasionally shout “YES!!” whenever we make a shot with a matching fist pump, or curse while pounding my fist on my table. Yes, I did get those stares from the customers and baristas.
Tomorrow will be the fourth game of Gilas against Puerto Rico, and I would be out again during their match. Wherever you are tomorrow, make sure that you download the Viewstream app on your Android smartphone and watch Gilas fight their hearts out! Thank you Smart Communications for making this app available for us!
To our dear Gilas Pilipinas, we’ll pray that you win these last 2 remaining games. Kaya niyo yan! #LabanPilipinas #Puso
