Effectively ending the terrestrial network’s operations.
On July 10, 2020, the House Committee on Legislative Franchises denied the motion to grant ABS-CBN Corporation to grant a new 25-year Congressional license to build and operate terrestrial television and radio stations nationwide.
70 lawmakers voted against the bills, while only 11 supported the proposed legislation to issue a new franchise.
The voting was the culmination of the 13-day marathon hearings conducted by the House to tackle issues being thrown at ABS-CBN.
Some of those included the alleged tax and regulatory deficiencies, where they were later cleared by the relevant agencies; labor matters; and even the citizenship of former Chairman Gabby Lopez.
As a result of the loss of its franchise and the earlier shutdown due to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), ABS-CBN implemented a company-wide retrenchment exercise by the end of the following month, August 31, 2020.
Among those badly affected were the Regional Network and Sports divisions, which were both gutted, as well as subsidiaries like KidZania Manila.
The NTC also then proceeded to recall the former TV and radio frequencies that the Kapamilya network once operated, including analog channel 2, 630 kHz, and 101.9 FM in Mega Manila.
Although, years after that, several bills were filed in the succeeding Congresses to grant ABS-CBN a fresh franchise, although none have made it to the committee level in the House of Representatives so far.