At the Philippine Basketball Association's annual preseason press conference on Tuesday, major changes were announced to both its game schedules and free TV broadcast arrangements.
The changes were reportedly done in line with broadcast partner TV5's full pivot towards entertainment and news.
Here's everything you need to know about watching the games live and on TV.
When's opening day and what will happen?
The first conference of the season -- the Commissioner's Cup -- gets going on Nov. 5 at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The annual LEO Awards, which honors last season's Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year, and other individual awards, kicks things off at 4 p.m. before the lone game of the night -- Magnolia Hotshots vs. TNT Tropang Giga -- fires off at 7 p.m.
The traditional parade of teams with their respective muses will still take place, somewhere between the LEO Awards and the first game.
So far, no muses have been announced by any team.
When and where will the games be played?
The elimination round games will still be held on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with a double header on each game day, except for at least four Saturdays when the league holds an out-of-town game.
The only exception to the regular schedule is the annual Christmas Day double-header, which falls on a Monday. There will be no games on Christmas Eve, Dec. 29, Dec. 30 and New Year's Eve.
The Metro Manila elimination round games will be split among three venues -- Smart Araneta Coliseum, Philsports Arena and Ynares Center. No games are scheduled at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Four out-of-town games are scheduled on Nov. 25 (Tiaong, Quezon), Dec. 9 (San Jose, Batangas), Dec. 16 (Cagayan de Oro), and Jan. 6 (Iloilo City). A possible fifth out-of-town game on Jan. 13 still doesn't have a venue.
The Wednesday and Friday games are scheduled for 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., while the Saturday and Sunday double-headers are scheduled for 3 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. The Saturday out-of-town solo games are scheduled for 6:15 p.m.
The gap between games on Wednesday and Friday is reportedly to give way to TV Patrol, the award-winning news program of ABS-CBN.
Where can the games be watched remotely?
For free TV, don't be looking for live games on TV5.
The network has decided to transfer the PBA to A2Z, a UHF channel owned by Zoe TV and ABS-CBN, on a blocktime arrangement. A2Z can be found on Channel 11 on analog and Sky Cable and Channel 20 on Cignal.
For the high-definition (HD) experience, the games will still be aired live on PBA Rush, Cignal's exclusive cable channel for all things PBA.
For streaming options, Cignal Play has PBA Rush and A2Z. You can also watch on Pilipinas Live, Cignal's new sports streaming app.
If you can't watch the live broadcast and want to catch up on games, replays will be shown on free TV channel One Sports and PBA Rush. Again, you won't find any more PBA games on TV5.