The following is a list of events affecting Philippine television in 2020. Events listed include television show debuts, finales, cancellations, and channel launches, closures and rebrandings, as well as information about controversies and carriage disputes.
Events
January January 1 Diva and E! have ceased its operations by NBCUniversal International Networks across Southeast Asia due to the review of the management's decision through changes in business direction. The Philippine feeds of Fox Networks Group-owned channels including Fox, Fox Life, Fox Movies and National Geographic (SD) were reverted to the main Southeast Asian feed with a local opt-out commercial feeds. January 3 - TV5 Network, Nation Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) Radyo5 92.3 News FM and Aliw Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) signed a memorandum of agreement for the expanded coverage of both the TV and radio networks nationwide. Selected DWIZ programs will be simulcast on the Radyo5 Network. January 4 - Jayson Nicolas, a former overseas worker in East Asia, emerged as the first BiyaHERO Grand Winner on It's Showtime. January 7 - Sony Pictures Television sold four owned channels (Animax, AXN, GEM and ONE) to KC Global Media Entertainment, and later completed on May 11. January 10–12 - The Philippines hosted the 24th Asian Television Awards.
February February 2 - Juan Gapang of Bacolod City (Singing) and Kenyo Street Fam of Bulacan (Dancing) hailed as Your Moment Grand Champions. February 4 - Robert P. Galang became the new president and CEO of TV5 Network and Cignal TV, replacing Jane Basas. February 5 - ASAP Natin 'To celebrated its 25th anniversary on Philippine television. February 6 ABS-CBN Films launched a new talent management arm, "Rise Artists Studio". Balitanghali Weekend its celebrate 10th anniversary on Philippine television until it concluded on March 15, 2020. February 10 - Solicitor General Jose Calida filed a quo warranto petition on the Supreme Court of the Philippines against ABS-CBN Corporation and its subsidiary ABS-CBN Convergence for seeking to revoke the ABS-CBN's broadcast franchise over alleged violations of the company. February 14 - Ryan Sy won on It's Showtime's Piling Lucky. February 17 - TAP Digital Media Ventures Corporation rebranded three-owned channels: TAP Sports 1 to TAP Sports, TAP Sports 2 to TAP W and EDGEsport to TAP Edge, as well as launched two-owned channels: Premier Football and Premier Tennis. February 25 - Radio Philippines Network celebrated its 60th anniversary of broadcasting via CNN Philippines. February 29 After almost 3 years of broadcasting, Zee Sine has ceased its broadcast on pay TV by Essel Group due to programming redundancies, lack of advertising support and cost-cutting measures, as well as change in business direction. Sky Cable terminated Paramount Channel on its line-up due to the expiration of Sky's contract with the network.
March March 1 GMA Network celebrated its 70th anniversary of broadcasting as a radio network. Headstart with Karen Davila celebrated its 10th anniversary on Philippine television. Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation celebrated its 60th anniversary of broadcasting. March 8 - After one year of broadcast, 5 Plus rebranded as One Sports, coinciding with the start of the 2020 PBA season. It was the first MediaQuest Holdings through Nation Broadcasting Corporation free-to-air broadcast network and the first outside cable and satellite to use the "One" branding. In addition to transferring the name from cable to free-to-air, its cable and satellite counterpart has also been rebranded to One Sports+. Along with their sister network rebranding, One News and One PH updated a new updated logo, while 5 removed all ESPN–related references in the network's own sport division due to the rebranding of One Sports, with the website continued to run under the ESPN branding in partnership with The Walt Disney Company's GO Network. March 10–11 - During the COVID-19 pandemic that recently spread across the country, President Rodrigo Duterte's declaration as state of public health emergency and the World Health Organization's declaration as a pandemic, as well as local transmission of the coronavirus being present in the country, ABS-CBN and GMA Network announced the temporary suspension of their studio audience tapings for all of its shows, including the former's Magandang Buhay, It's Showtime, ASAP Natin 'To, Banana Sundae and the second season of I Can See Your Voice; and the latter's Mars Pa More, Eat Bulaga! (the first show suspending their live studio audience tapings on March 9), Wowowin (including its Saturday night primetime spin-off), Centerstage, Sarap, 'Di Ba?, The Boobay and Tekla Show and All-Out Sundays, as well as GMA News TV's Idol sa Kusina and Tonight with Arnold Clavio (which also been affected by the audience taping suspensions) as for the safety and well-being of the artists, crew and production teams. The aforementioned shows were continued to air in production without a studio audience as a precautionary measure. March 12 - The major sports leagues across the country announced a temporary suspension of games in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The Philippine Basketball Association, the PBA Developmental League and the Philippine Super Liga announced an indefinite suspension of the league's activity, while the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League and the National Basketball League announced the suspension for the remainder of its playoffs. In addition, the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the University Athletic Association of the Philippines games were cancelled. The suspension of the five leagues affecting schedules of 5, One Sports, One Sports+, PBA Rush, S+A, Liga and Solar Sports. March 13 - The religious community has cancelled the majority of its Catholic masses and Christian worship services due to the pandemic. Religious programs were affected by the pandemic including ABS-CBN's The Healing Eucharist; PTV's Oras Ng Himala, Soldiers of Christ Healing on the Air and Jesus Miracle Crusade; 5's Misa Nazareno, Sambuhay TV Mass and The Word of God Network; CNN Philippines' TV Healing Mass for the Homebound; IBC's Family Appointment with El Shaddai and Feast TV; One Sports' Family TV Mass; S+A's Friends Again; Light TV's Jesus the Healer; SMNI's Sounds of Worship; and Life TV's Oras ng Katotohanan and The Lord's Day. The TV mass shows were continued to air without the churchgoers as a part of a precautionary measure. March 14 - ABS-CBN temporary suspended the productions of teleseryes and live entertainment shows including the episodes that were scheduled to complete effective March 15 as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to become a serious issue. Among of the primetime shows were affected including Pamilya Ko, FPJ's Ang Probinsyano, Make It with You and A Soldier's Heart, which were on hold from the schedule beginning March 16. Meanwhile, GMA Network also announced the suspension of productions on the network–produced teleseryes and live entertainment shows, as well as live entertainment shows co-produced by outside producers and blocktimers beginning March 15. March 16 - The Presidential Communications Operations Office began airing Public Briefing: #LagingHandaPH providing an official updates on the COVID-19 pandemic on PTV with simulcast on other media outlets through KBP-affiliated member stations. March 18 To replace the broadcast of Umagang Kay Ganda and all ABS-CBN Regional morning programming (which were ordered to halt in order to support government efforts to fight against COVID-19), ABS-CBN revived its weekday morning linkup with DZMM TeleRadyo for the first time in years as a provisional programming, leading to the nationwide television simulcast of all DZMM-AM programs including Garantisadong Balita, Kabayan and Radyo Patrol Balita Alas-Siyete. The infomercial industry has been affecting their shipping and deliveries, as well as delayed orderings due to the enhanced community quarantine brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. As an emergency measure, two companies announced their temporary suspension of their informercials telecast: TV Shop Philippines (on Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation and RJ DigiTV beginning March 19, as well as temporary shut down of its standalone channel on BEAM TV starting March 30) and EZ Shop (on Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation, BEAM TV, 5, One Sports and GMA News TV beginning March 19, but their standalone channel exclusively on Cignal continued its broadcast). The other companies were continued to air infomercials including O Shopping (on ABS-CBN, S+A, Jeepney TV, and its own standalone network on Sky Cable, Sky Direct and ABS-CBN TV Plus including TV Plus Go) and Shop TV (on ETC and its standalone channel on selected cable and satellite providers). GMA News TV temporary shut down its operations in support of the enhanced community quarantine, whereas all of its staff were moving to GMA and the moved of Dobol B sa News TV to the mother station as Dobol B sa GMA effective March 19 with the simulcast of Melo del Prado sa Super Radyo DZBB, thus marked the first radio-television simulcast since the 1990s radio-TV program Kape at Balita. The Melo del Prado sa Super Radyo DZBB portion (which served as a lead-in to Unang Hirit) aired on March 19 and 20. On March 20, the mother network announced its decision to reverse the suspension for the remainder of its weekday and the entire weekend morning line-ups (with the exception of Yo-kai Watch–which temporary replaced by Sambuhay TV Mass beginning March 22 and Agripreneur, Kapwa Ko Mahal Ko and In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley–all suspended from airing beginning March 21) due to the sister channel's resumption on March 21. Then on March 21, the English language newscast GMA Regional TV Weekend News was also moved to the mother network. Later on March 23, the two networks began simulcasting Super Balita sa Umaga Nationwide and Saksi sa Dobol B while Unang Hirit was on hiatus. The temporary, weekday-only joint network simulcast of Dobol B sa GMA/News TV ended on April 8 when Unang Hirit resumed on April 13 following the Holy Week break, while the temporary only broadcast of GMA Regional TV Weekend News ended on April 25, a week before its return to the sister network on May 2. In an unprecedented move following an employee from a company working in the Corporate World Center in Mandaluyong has diagnosed with the virus, CNN Philippines temporary shut down its broadcast for days to allowed for a disinfection works on its studios and control rooms. To compensated, selected programming was broadcast nationally through the channel's social media pages. As an emergency measure, ABS-CBN News Channel temporarily simulcasted DZMM TeleRadyo's programming to local and international viewers but with its own commercials, cutting the feed for the channel's flagship, Top Story. March 19