News TV still lives on, albeit on a smaller scale locally.
On Saturday, February 27, GTV aired a short news bulletin at 11:00am. But instead of having a new hourly news update program, GTV basically continued with the old. News TV Live is still alive.
The aformentioned news bulletin, which was launched in 2011, seems to be GTV’s interim rolling news brand. However, it still does continue to serve its purpose for the international counterpart of GMA News TV, which is on air up to this day. Still, the title seems to obsolete locally now and badly needs an overhaul.
One idea that GMA News might explore is to create a flagship news program-based bulletin ala-24 Oras News Alert on channel 7. For GTV’s case, that recognition would go to the State of the Nation. Thus, it could be renamed as State of the Nation Ngayon or State of the Nation Live. That way, it would remain channel brand neutral and on air for as long as the main SONA is on.
Another one would be a standalone brand reminiscent to Flash Report’s days on GMA. Speaking of which, Flash Report could be also revived for this purpose.
As of the moment, there are no information yet on how long would this (rather) temporary measure last.
The continued presence of News TV Live amidst the rebrand to GTV would be beneficial in the interim while the channel is still on transitionary period. One, it could help those who are still unaware of News TV’s new name and two, it bridges the gap that the rebrand may have caused. But in a month or so, when everything has been settled, the final remnant of what was GMA’s free TV “news” channel must banish from GTV’s lineup.