The news channel’s lifestyle sub-brand has been sunsetted.
When one goes to the official social media accounts of ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC)’s lifestyle section ANCX on Facebook and X, he will see that the last published post was an article on June 29, 2024.
Clicking through the link, instead of being sent to the main site, which used to be housed on the URL “ancx.ph,” visitors will be redirected to the Lifestyle section at the ABS-CBN News website.
Moreover, an attempt to search “ancx.ph” directly onto a browser like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge will lead to a landing page that links to a domain hosting provider.
It is unknown when the transition and eventual merger of the ANCX with the ABS-CBN News main website exactly occurred.
Although, taking a look back onto the links of the past articles posted on the ANCX pages, it might have begun as early as January 2024.
That month, the first article bearing the “news2.abs-cbn.com” came up, which in previous months had landed visitors to the ANCX homepage.
However, at the moment, even that URL now redirects to the main homepage of ABS-CBN News.
ANCX
Prior to being a lifestyle brand, ANCX was firstly known as the name for live events organized by ANC.
In June 2018, it was then relaunched as the lifestyle strip largely catering to men on the 24/7 news channel every late-evening.
The block consisted of shows like originals ‘LSS The Martin Nievera Show,’ ‘Rev,’ ‘Show Me The Market,’ ‘State of the Art,’ and acquired foreign programs ‘The Art Show,’ ‘The Wine Show,’ and ‘Booze Traveller.’
Long-running ANC programs ‘Cityscape,’ ‘Green Living,’ and ‘Asian Air Safari’ were also added under the ANCX umbrella.
In 2019, ANCX expanded to the digital space by launching a slate of online-only shows like ‘Ces and The City,’ ‘Get Reel,’ and ‘Manhacks.’
But after the denial of the renewal of ABS-CBN’s free-to-air franchise in 2020, ANCX was scaled back. Online shows were stopped, while the television block reverted into being a nondescript lifestyle programming line-up on the channel.
Although, ANCX continued to be a separate website, posting lifestyle articles that heavily complemented the female-oriented ABS-CBN-owned property Metro.Style.
CHANGES
The merger of the ANCX website comes after the end of another ABS-CBN News sub-brand, the Filipino news site patrol.ph, which launched in 2018.
However, as of June 2024, that website also now redirects to the main ABS-CBN News homepage.