GMA Regional TV axes local bulletins in Southern Tagalog, Bicol

No more local Kapuso news for these areas starting September 2.

On Friday, August 30, which was coincidentally the National Press Freedom Day, GMA Regional TV quietly canceled two of its local newscasts.

Given the axe were ‘Balitang Southern Tagalog,’ based in Batangas for the Southern Luzon area, and ‘Balitang Bicolandia,’ emanating from Naga for all of Bicol.

No words were given with regards to the exact reason behind the cancelation of these shows, nor were there any on-air acknowledgement of the news and farewell messages delivered by both programs for their viewers during their final episode.

Over at the GMA Regional TV main website, links for the axed newscasts have also been removed.

Following this development, the RTV stations in Batangas and Naga reverted to the Manila master feed of the network starting Monday, September 2.

This meant that instead of their respective local newscasts, viewers in these regions will now be receiving a foreign drama, which is currently the Thai series ‘The Betrayal,’ that usually airs at the 5:10 pm slot in the capital region.

‘Balitang Bicolandia’ was originally launched in February 2021, while ‘Balitang Southern Tagalog’ was introduced in February 2022.

The nixing of both newscasts is the latest of the downsizing measures implemented by the RTV group since the start of this year.

In January 2024, the regional morning shows that used to air at 8:00 am in the regions around the Philippines were canceled.

This was later followed by the downgrading of the flagship national ‘Regional TV News’ show on GTV, which has morphed into a segment of ‘Balitanghali’ beginning June 2024.

Meanwhile, in a related development, on Monday, September 2, GMA Regional TV debuted the updated on-air look of its remaining newscasts around the country, namely ‘One North Central Luzon,’ ‘One Western Visayas,’ ‘Balitang Bisdak,’ and ‘One Mindanao.’

The four programs have been brought in line with the red-and-blue color code for all GMA Integrated News programs, which was first rolled out in December 2023.

Trendrod remains open for comments from GMA Network.

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