Television was first introduced to the Philippines in October 1953, with the first commercial broadcast by Alto Broadcasting System (now ABS-CBN). This made the Philippines the first Southeast Asian country and the second Asian country to air television broadcasts. During the late 1940s, Filipino engineers and students conducted academic experiments related to broadcasting.
From 1975 to 1978, the Philippine Academy for Television Arts and Sciences (PATAS) presented the SINAG Awards.
The Star Awards for Television, the country's oldest existing television awards show, is presented annually by the Philippine Movie Press Club (PMPC) after a vote by members of the press.
The Philippines does not operate any independent public broadcasting television networks. However, there are several government-owned networks.
History The Early Years (1946–1959) James Lindenberg, nicknamed the "Father of Philippine Television," was an American-born Filipino engineer who established the Bolinao Electronics Corporation (BEC) on June 13, 1946, following his work assembling transmitters. The company was named after Bolinao, Pangasinan, the hometown of his wife, Soledad S. Lindenberg. In 1949, he became one of the first individuals to apply for a license from the Philippine Congress to establish a television station. Lindenberg's application was approved on June 14, 1950. However, due to the scarcity of raw materials and strict import restrictions under the Import Control Act, he decided to shift to radio broadcasting instead.Geocities: The Philippine TV History. Accessed January 23, 2009.
Lindenberg's failed attempt to establish a television station resulted in the BEC falling under new management. Antonio Quirino, a judge and brother of the then-president of the Philippines, Elpidio Quirino, attempted to get a license from Congress that would allow him to set up a television station. However, Congress denied his request, primarily out of fear that he would use the station as a tool to spread propaganda about his brother, who was running for a second term in the presidential elections of 1953. As a result, Quirino bought a 70% share in BEC, which indirectly granted him control of a television franchise. He changed the name of BEC to Alto Broadcasting System (ABS) after the names of its new owners: Aleli and Judge Antonio Quirino. After the name change, Lindenberg continued to serve as the co-owner and general manager.
Before its official launch, the television station encountered numerous challenges. For example, the Central Bank of the Philippines refused to grant Quirino credit, stating that the venture was too risky. Due to this, Quirino asked for help from his friend Marvin Gray, whose family was friends with David Sarnoff, the then-president of Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Through Gray's intervention, Quirino was able to get assistance from the RCA.
Before the first telecast, Quirino imported 120 television sets using the 60,000 pesos loan that he had received from the owner of Joe's Electric. In exchange for the loan, Joe's Electric was the first corporation granted the rights to sell television sets in the Philippines.
On October 23, 1953, Quirino marked the first official television broadcast in the Philippines with the launch of ABS DZAQ-TV Channel 3 (DZAQ-TV 3). With the help of RCA, four men underwent technical training in the United States: Arcadio Carandang, Romualdo Carballo, Harry Chaney, and Jose Navarro.
The ABS studio was first established in a makeshift barn that was on Florentino Torres Street in Manila. Using a transmitter acquired from RCA, its telecasts reached neighboring provinces far beyond the initial expectations that broadcasts would only cover Manila. While the four engineers were sent to the United States for training, most ABS personnel gained their expertise through hands-on experience. The station's first transmitter was located in San Juan, Rizal.
DZAQ-TV 3 began with a four-hour daily broadcast schedule, airing from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Although ABS secured 52 advertisers for its premiere telecast, selling commercial spots for regular programming proved challenging as radio advertising remained a more cost-effective option for advertisers at the time.
The programs aired at that time were usually borrowed films from foreign embassies, imported cowboy movies, and coverage of a variety of real-world events. When the station ran out of new features, stage plays were adapted to television. In 1953, less than a month after the first telecast, Father James Reuter , who had radio and television training, produced the first play on Philippine television entitled Cyrano de Bergerac. The three-hour-long play was aired live, and all the actors were students.
In the beginning, Philippine TV networks would buy the rights to air American TV programs and serials since it was cheaper than producing local shows. To entice advertisers, as well as to encourage increased viewership, simultaneous airing of programs on radio and television resorted to promotional gimmicks. Many popular radio shows, including Tawag ng Tanghalan, Kuwentong Kutsero, and Student Canteen, started their lives on TV this way.
In 1955, Radiowealth Inc. was one of the first companies in the Philippines to begin manufacturing television sets, with other local manufacturers like Carlsound and Rehco following close behind. As more assembly lines were established and the industry continued to grow, the normally prohibitive cost of having to buy television sets or their various components overseas was dramatically reduced. The following year, businessmen Eugenio and Fernando Lopez started the Chronicle Broadcasting Network (CBN), which was initially a radio-centric enterprise. However, when the Philippines lifted a high tax on imported TV shows in 1958, CBN began to branch out into the television industry as well.
Early that same year, CBN acquired ABS from Quirino and merged the two companies under a new name: the Bolinao Electronics Corporation. With the establishment of DZXL-TV Channel 9 on April 19, 1958, the Lopez brothers were now in control of two of the largest networks in the Philippines. As a result of this merger, the combined ABS (DZAQ-TV Channel 3) and CBN (DZXL-TV Channel 9) television stations moved to their new studios in Roxas Boulevard in Pasay, and the ABS radio facilities moved to the Chronicle Building in Manila’s Intramuros District, which also housed the CBN Radio studios.
Rising popularity (1960–1973) At the turn of the next decade, TV set demand in urban areas soared. Other VHF TV stations also opened around this period. These include DZTV-TV (established on March 1, 1960, by Inter-Island Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), owned by Dick Baldwin and later Andrés Soriano Sr. of San Miguel Corporation), DZBB-TV (established on October 29, 1961, by Republic Broadcasting System (RBS), owned by Robert Stewart),GMA Network History . Accessed January 23, 2009. DZFM-TV (established in 1961 by the Philippine Broadcasting Service of the Philippine government, now defunct), DZRH-TV (established on April 11, 1962, by the Manila Broadcasting Company (MBC), owned by Manuel "Manolo" Elizalde Sr.), DZTM-TV (established in July 1962, by Associated Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), owned by Chino Roces, the publisher of The Manila Times), DZFU-TV (established in August 1962, by FEATI University, now defunct), and DZKB-TV (established on October 15, 1969, by Kanlaon Broadcasting System (KBS), owned by Roberto Benedicto). Among the top-rated programs in the 1960s were The Nida-Nestor Show, Buhay Artista, and Pancho Loves Tita. Another top-rated local show was Tawag ng Tanghalan, the amateur singing contest hosted by Lopito and Patsy.
Following the success of the first locally produced television drama Hiwaga sa Bahay na Bato in 1963, BEC's DZAQ-TV Channel 3 staged the first colorized test television broadcast using the NTSC system of the Radio Corporation of America and would begin to broadcast in color in 1966. Channel 3 also surpassed competitors when it came to educational television initiatives with a one-hour daily slot in the early years of the decade, with Inter-Island 13 following suit.
On February 1, 1967, the corporate name of BEC was changed to ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation. In August 2007, the company again changed its name to ABS-CBN Corporation to reflect the media conglomerate's diversification, with the name ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation being used secondarily in some contexts since then. During the same year, Radiowealth Inc. pioneered the production of 19-, 21-, and 25-inch models of color TV sets. Moreover, ABS-CBN was favored by advertisers like Procter and Gamble, the Philippine Refining Company, Colgate-Palmolive, Del Rosario Brothers, and Caltex. On November 14–15, ABS-CBN broadcast a 36-hour marathon coverage of the 1967 Philippine Senate elections under its coverage name Halalan '67.
In 1969, Filipinos witnessed the live television coverage of the Apollo 11 historic moon landing. It was the first live telecast via satellite in the country. Channels 5, 7, and 13 tied up for this, while ABS-CBN produced its color coverage on DZXL-TV Channel 9 under the name Man on the Moon. On November 14, 1969, DZAQ-TV transferred from Channel 3 to Channel 2, while its sister station DZXL-TV transferred from Channel 9 to Channel 4. On October 15, 1969, Kanlaon Broadcasting System (KBS) launched its television network with DZKB-TV Channel 9, which would broadcast in full color. On November 11, ABS-CBN became the first network to use chroma key in Halalan '69, for the 1969 Philippine presidential election, while ABC-5, RBS-7, and IBC-13 once again collaborated for the multi-network coverage with Election '69.
By the late 1960s, news and public affairs programs were pioneered by ABS-CBN and ABC. The Big News (in English) on ABC's DZTM-TV Channel 5, first anchored by Bong Lapira and later by Jose Mari Velez, and The World Tonight (in English) on ABS-CBN's DZAQ-TV Channel 2, anchored by Henry Halasan, were the first news programs on Philippine television, followed in that same period by NewsWatch (in English) of KBS's DZKB-TV Channel 9 and NewsBreak (in English) on ABS-CBN's DZXL-TV Channel 4, featuring Lapira. ABS-CBN pioneered Filipino-language news programming in the primetime slots, with DZAQ-TV Channel 2 having Balita Ngayon, once anchored by Ric Tierro, and DZXL-TV Channel 4 having Apat na Sulok ng Daigdig, with Orly Mercado as its first presenter. IBC-13 followed up with Mayor Villegas Reports, co-produced with the Manila city government, and National Television News (in English) featuring future NewsWatch anchor Harry Gasser. MBC's DZRH-TV Channel 11 dominated late-night news programs with The 11th Hour News. In 1969, ABS-CBN debuted This Week's News, the first weekend news broadcast in the nation.
By 1971, the Philippines, through Radiowealth Inc., had become the third country in the world to manufacture color TV sets. By January 1972, the Philippine television industry had experienced significant growth. Following ABS-CBN's pioneering satellite broadcasts, television stations began opening across the country, starting in 1961 with DYCB-TV Channel 3 in Cebu City, the first provincial television station. It featured four hours of locally produced programming, alongside relays of Manila-based shows.
Martial law era (1973–1986) When President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in September 1972, he ordered the takeover of media firms. Government troops entered radio and television stations and placed them under military control. All media outlets that were critical of the Marcos administration were padlocked and sequestered.