The Philippine Basketball Association is heading to its Philippine Cup Finals buoyed by soaring numbers drawn from new carrier RPTV Channel 9 aside from the figures representing viewers on the league’s other platforms.

“We are very grateful yung mga manonood natin ay patuloy tayong sinusundan, at nadagdagan pa sila noong mga nakatutok sa atin sa RPTV, sa ating carrying cable network at sa social media,” said PBA commissioner Willie Marcial.

“Nakakataba ng puso, and this will definitely inspire us all the more to bring the best games possible especially as we near the league’s 50th season,” Marcial also said.

The league top honcho is expressing heartfelt thanks to the PBA fans after receiving reports of an average of 1.2 million reached every game in its initial months of broadcast by RPTV.

Then add the millions more attracted by the PBA games on Cignal TV’s Rush channel and via online.

Game 5 of the Barangay Ginebra-Meralco semifinal showdown over at RPTV drew a rating of 3.1% on NUTAM and 2.6% on PHINTAM, peaking at 3.9% or about 2.8 million viewers towards the end of the fourth quarter while the just concluded Game 7 eventually won by Meralco drew 2.4 million viewers.

Starting to broadcast the PBA games just early this year, RPTV drew the highest rating from the March 10 game pitting Barangay Ginebra versus Phoenix Super LPG. The Kings spilled the Fuel Masters, 102-92, in that contest.