Today, ABS-CBN is commemorating two big milestones for the company. On one hand, they’re celebrating the 75th year of the Corporation’s establishment in 1946 as Bolinao Electronics Corporation. While on the other, their new “flagship” TV station Kapamilya Channel has officially turned one.
In the final edition of The Shutdown’s Aftermath special feature, we’ll be taking a look at all the alternative outlets ABS-CBN resorted to after the shutdown and the eventual franchise denial.
Kapamilya Channel
On June 4, 2020, ABS-CBN officially announced on its flagship primetime newscast TV Patrol that a new cable channel is about to be launched nine days later to house all the Kapamilya entertainment programs carried by channel 2 before the shutdown. Aptly named as the Kapamilya Channel, it was initially launched exclusively on Sky Cable and Direct, Gsat, and other PCTA operators. But in October 2020, Cignal and Satlite opened spots for the channel on their platforms, further boosting the reach of KapCha.
As far as content is concerned, news programs were first limited to morning TeleRadyo simulcasts and News Patrol bulletins. TV Patrol, TV Patrol Weekend, and The World Tonight were also later added to the evening schedule by July 27, 2020.
Until October 9, 2020, it was also the exclusive home on TV of ABS-CBN Entertainment shows after the shutdown. But that changed as ABS-CBN made a comeback on free-to-air television with the debut of A2Z Channel 11.
A2Z Channel 11
On October 6, 2020, ABS-CBN and ZOE Broadcasting Network jointly announced the formation of a new blocktime agreement on channel 11 as A2Z. The pronouncement ended the years-long speculation that ABS-CBN would land a spot on ZOE TV 11 should channel 2 cease operations due to the expiration of the Kapamilya network’s franchise. It should also be noted that channel 11 was formerly home to GMA News TV until 2019 through a similar channel leasing agreement with ZOE.
When A2Z officially launched on October 10, 2020, it helped free TV Kapamilya viewers get caught up on teleseryes when it aired respective marathon specials of FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano, Ang Sa Iyo ay Akin, and Walang Hanggang Paalam. It’s Showtime and ASAP Natin ‘To also redbuted on free TV that same weekend.
More ABS-CBN Entertainment shows later joined the lineup before the month of October 2020 ended.
However, the compromise in the said deal is the limited reach of channel 11, which is only seen in Mega Manila. Thus, ABS-CBN sought to have another deal with a national broadcaster.
TV5
In 2019, rumors floated around that apart from ZOE, ABS-CBN was also in talks with MediaQuest to buy airtime or outright acquire TV5 from the holdings firm. However, that was immediately dismissed by the Kapatid network, stating that Cignal TV will be filling their grid with entertainment shows in 2020.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic happened and the plans for channel 5 were halted, including the averted rebrand to One TV. The TV5 brand went on and by August, a slate of new entertainment offerings were unveiled, featuring some stars from ABS-CBN. It was also due to TV5 chairman Manny V. Pangilinan’s statement that they’re “open to welcome talents” from their erstwhile rival network.
But these attempts, including those from their partners Brightlight Productions, among others, proved to be rather unsuccessful bids to challenge the supremacy of GMA Network.
By January 2021, shows started to be canceled or ended one by one, and the first wave of Kapamilya shows entered the network’s lineup. Those were the FPJ Da King movie block and the longest-running Sunday variety show ASAP Natin ‘To. It was a controversial move, especially ASAP replaced Sunday Noontime Live — which featured displaced talents from the Kapamilya network.
A month later, TV5 cleared its primetime block, with much of its weeknight offerings ending or transferred to other timeslots. And on March 8, the ‘open surprise’ — as it was already expected beforehand — happened when four ABS-CBN Entertainment primetime shows began airing on TV5. Alone, the channel 5 broadcast of those shows has since become the second most-watched primetime block on PHTV in less than two months, with FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano hitting at most 6% on some nights, a rare feat for TV5.
Prior to the whole blocktime/collaboration with Cignal TV, ABS-CBN through Star Cinema and Brightlight Productions were set to have a co-production via Love on Da Move. However, as of writing, the state of the program is unknown.
Moving forward, TV5 and ABS-CBN Entertainment are also set to have a direct collaboration via the teleserye comeback project of Claudine Barretto. But as of now, there are still no other details available regarding that.
In retrospect…
The lack of franchise drove ABS-CBN to other platforms, even to the most unconventional of all — their former free TV peers and rivals. Also, despite a much depleted reach, in the era where “content is king,” the avenue where those are shown have become least of the audiences’ concern. As long as they’re able to get their fix of their favorite programs from the entertainment giant, all is well for them.
Still, there’s still a long way to go before ABS-CBN is able to cover all of their (former) viewers from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.