The longest-running Filipino-language newscast is reportedly making its way back to channel 2.
In a bombshell report by business publication Bilyonaryo, their source reported that ABS-CBN Corporation and Advanced Media Broadcasting System (AMBS) have allegedly reached a blocktime agreement for one of the Kapamilya network’s flagship programs.
According to the said news site, ABS-CBN’s flagship newscast ‘TV Patrol’ will begin airing on ALLTV starting this month, particularly on Monday, April 15.
Coincidentally, such a move will mean that ‘TV Patrol’ will return to its previous home of 33 years, as well as its comeback after airing as the last-ever show on what was then-ABS-CBN channel 2 on May 5, 2020.
Since the shutdown, ‘TV Patrol’ has been airing on cable news channels ANC and TeleRadyo, before eventually simulcasting over Kapamilya Channel starting July 2020.
In January 2022, over a year after becoming a pay TV-exclusive show for the first time in its history, ‘TVP’ returned to free-to-air television via A2Z channel.
In recent months, the program has been caught in a neck-and-neck battle with TV5’s ‘Frontline Pilipinas’ for the second place in the primetime news competition currently led by GMA’s “24 Oras.”
An additional free TV broadcast partner in ALLTV might potentially help ‘TV Patrol’ address its free-to-air reach problem.
However, as of press time, neither ABS-CBN nor AMBS have commented on the said report, as they have done with all other past reports regarding a potential tie-up between them.
Although, since its launch in 2022, ALLTV has been airing Kapamilya programs by way of old ABS-CBN drama productions like ‘Doble Kara,’ ‘Ngayon at Kailanman,’ ‘Sana Dalawa Ang Puso,’ among others.
Last February, the Kapamilya network sent out a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange to dispel another speculation.
There, the company denied anew the earlier rumors that they are applying for a new broadcast franchise, saying that “ABS-CBN Corporation disposed of assets that the company no longer needed to various broadcasting networks after we ceased operations as a broadcasting company.”
“It is not true that ABS-CBN is applying for a new franchise nor does it intend to buy back any of the assets it sold,” the former leading television network added.
Despite that, the Lopez-owned media conglomerate has remained mum on the news about an alleged deal with the Villar-led broadcast company that has been circulating for months now.
‘TV Patrol’ airs daily on A2Z, Kapamilya Channel, ANC, Teleradyo Serbisyo, Kapamilya Online Live, ABS-CBN News social media accounts, iWantTFC, and is heard on radio via DWPM Radyo 630.