In a surprise move by ABS-CBN, its popular streaming service iWant will be relaunched yet again next month.
Adieu, iWant and iWant’s website as the new iWant TFC is set to take their places beginning September 1, 2020. Currently, no formal announcement has been made yet, although the Philippine Entertainment Portal has already dropped the bombshell in this article.
But, is it really necessary to rebrand iWant now? An honest answer on this matter would definitely get a no.
Firstly, iWant has a brand that has always been independent even from the era that it was used as a SKY Cable catch-up service until it became ABS-CBN’s primary on-demand platform. A not-so-surprising fact is that many people still refer to iWant as iWant TV – its former name until 2018.
Secondly, although integrating the TFC name to it would make it ‘global’ in a sense, but is there really a need to plaster the TFC name even in the Philippines? Where many people might have not even experienced watching TFC, nor are they even familiar to it at all. Maybe it wouldn’t be even worth to do that at all. Instead, iWant TFC can replace TFC Online and let the local iWant remain as it is (with some improvements to its services).
Lastly, should the iWant TFC app push through, many users will still refer to it as either iWant or even iWant TV. A scenario akin to what happened to TV5’s rebrand as 5 Network in 2018 – where it eventually reverted to its former name just a week ago because the public is more familiar to the former than the latter.
Nevertheless, with the announcement of iWant TFC yet to happen anytime soon, ABS-CBN could at least reconsider this gamble now as wasting money for a rebrand like this would be costly for a company that is in the red now.