The Philippines was the first country in Asia to ever have a movie industry. In fact, some of the earliest movies that came out of Asia were made in the Philippines. So important was the local movie industry been to Filipinos that over the years many movie stars have held important positions in local and national government. One – Joseph E. Estrada – even succeeded in winning the No. 1 position of president. In its heyday – up until the mid 90s – local film producers churned out more than 100 films of various genres were produced annually. Now, less than 30 movies are produced. Taxes have been blamed as the main culprit for the industry’s moribund state; movie producers are left with only one-third of the income to take home, post tax. A saturation of Hollywood blockbusters and piracy has twisted the knife even further for local movies makers. But it’s not the same climate for Philippine television, which can be described in three words: Hot. Hot. Hot. A genre that local movie stars once looked at with scorn, TV has now become a career refuge and of course a decent source of income. Presently, the main primetime fare (6.30pm-11.30pm) on free-to-air are the stock of TV dramas and various reality shows. The top two networks – GMA Network and ABS-CBN, respectively – guard their turf aggressively with high-recall titles that stick with viewers. GMA, erstwhile industry leader since 2004, calls its primetime block Telebabad (babad is a Pilipino word which means “to immerse”), while rival ABS-CBN, calls its stretch, Primetime Bida (bida means to tell a story). Ratings competition between the two networks is also fierce, with both claiming they are Number 1. It is the best way to attract advertisers and gain more ad revenue. Interestingly, the two networks subscribe to different media research groups – GMA to AGB Nielsen Media Research (Philippines), and ABS-CBN to Kantar Media- TNS Philippines – both of whom support both networks’ claims of being Number 1. AGB Nielsen is said to have the bigger panel of TV households vis-a-vis Kantar and is the research group of choice of top media agencies and clients. If TV industry data was closely analysed between the two, GMA Network rules metro Manila, the country’s national capital region (NCR) where the real advertising markets reside. Whereas ABS-CBN has the strongest foothold in Philippines’ southern provinces. Late last month, GMA claimed it had clinched the national lead, citing data from Nielsen TV Audience Measurement – with a 33.2 per cent audience share (based on overnight data) over ABS-CBN’s 31.8 per cent share. Into this battle royale enters a third force, an existing but drastically reformatted TV station bought by a new owner. TV5, erstwhile Number 3, and for a time Number 4 when GMA sister station QTV was enjoying its heyday, is now a serious player and posing a major threat to the prime positions of GMA and ABSCBN. Formerly owned by Tony Cojuangco, who at one time also owned telco Philippine Long Distance Company, TV5 (ABC Development Corporation) was bought in 2009 by Mediaquest, a subsidiary of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.’s (PLDT) Beneficial Trust Fund for an undisclosed amount. With the network’s new owner, business mogul Manuel V. Pangilinan, known for his penchant to acquire corporations and transform them into power entities, TV5 immediately felt a new surge of life. The network purchased new equipment, enticed talents in front and behind the camera from GMA and ABSCBN, bought MPB Primedia, the Philippine unit of TV5’s Malaysian block timer Media Prima Berhad. Offerings – particularly for GMA and ABS-CBN – is heavily skewed towards entertainment, especially the much loved soap operas or telenovelas. The long early-to-late-evening primetime block made up of romance dramas, dramacomedy or fantasy series, also features in an afternoon block, right after noon time variety or talent shows and precedes the early evening news. These emotion-packed drama series have an opium-like effect on their audience and is the place where big stars, who used to be in movies, feature. Korean drama series also rate highly with Filipino audiences and sometimes have the highest viewership on primetime. Joining the fray,TV5 (currently with 14.9 per cent audience share), recently debuted its first telenovela, Babaeng Hampaslupa (The Tramp) starring movie heavy-weights Susan Roces and Alice Dixson. But local TV audiences are not all just soaking up entertainment programmes. Market research has shown a nearly equal craving for news. ABS-CBN has an allnews channel on cable called ANC that is a well-respected source of live coverage and commentary. News on free TV is also holding its own against the insanely popular drama series. Even here ABS-CBN and GMA are locked in mortal combat, with GMA again having the edge, ratings-wise in this department. TV5 has chosen to go head to head with both ABS-CBN and GMA on the news front by airing Willing Willie, starring controversial host Willie Revillame, whose appeal with his mass audience is driven by his practice of giving away money randomly on the show. Last month GMA launched the first and only free-to-air news and public affairs channel in the country, GMA News TV. This ups the ante against the competition because of the wider audience accessibility to this all-news channel, which replaces its sister channel, QTV, which was a poor performer in 2010. TV5 will also launch a new free-toair news and sports channel – Aksyon TV – later this year. It seems the country’s major networks are really intent on providing local audiences with everything that they need – from serious news to various types of entertainment. Interestingly, all three major networks also have movie companies that produce feature films; ABS-CBN has Star Cinema, GMA has GMA Films, and now, ultra competitive TV5 has put up Studio 5. And so there is a chance that Filipino cinema may flourish again someday. But for now, TV is the go to and the aggressive competition from the networks means it will most likely be a long-playing love affair. —————————————————————————————————— Manuel drive By Tessa Jazmines Manuel V. Pangilinan, also known in local business and sports circles as MVP, has been known to take over businesses, buy this company, start new ones and somehow succeed at making them fly. He is also known as a philanthropist, a mover and shaker, an industrial genius and avid sports fan. He owns two professional basketball teams in the local pro league, is bankrolling the national football team and is the godfather of the Philippines national basketball team. The moment he announced that his company, MediaQuest Holdings Inc. would be buying into low key broadcaster TV5, the buzz in media and business circles was that big changes would take place and that the two big networks, GMA and ABS-CBN would need to prepare for a fierce fight. Pangilinan, 64, first made waves when in the 90s his group, Metro Pacific, an Indonesian backed conglomerate, won the bid to develop Fort Bonifacio – the huge military base in southern Metro Manila – into what would later be known as the Global City. Pangilinan had trumped the usual winners of such high stake games, a precursor of his now trademark style. Eventually Pangilinan made another big move. He bought majority stakes in the country’s dominant telco, Philippine Long Distance Company. He breathed new life into the organisation’s slow-moving mobile phone business venture, turning it into the cellular phone industry’s leader, Smart Communication, Inc. Pangilinan had always wanted to own a media company and had at one time nearly succeeded at buying GMA, but the deal did not materialize. Buying TV5 from Tony Cojuangco was like a family deal. After all, MVP and Cojuangco had PLDT between them. The sale was consummated in 2010, and things have never been the same again on local television. MVP made bold offers to the industry’s talents – never mind if they were already part of other networks – and gave TV5 a distinct buzz and renewed energy. It was expected that all who joined or transferred to TV 5 would not be wanting for funds. “Right now, we are a strong No. 3, but our goal, of course, is to be No. 1 in both news and entertainment,” Rey Espinosa, MediaQuest president and CEO said when the new TV5 was launched in the first quarter of 2010. Since then, Pangilinan’s group has not been just growing TV5 like a pampered child. It has focused on acquiring other media assets too, among them a 10 per cent stake in the country’s leading national broadsheet, the Philippine Daily Inquirer. It also owns the National Broadcasting Corporation, Cignal Digital TV and has a minority stake in the country’s oldest business newspaper, Business World. It had also expressed its interest to buy into another leading newspaper, the Philippine Star. MVP’s group is pouring another P5 billion (US$114million) into TV5 this year in its aim to overtake both GMA and ABS-CBN and become the top network in the land. The first task is to acquire state of the art network equipment and new facilities, then improve the TV signal nationwide.