The following is a list of events affecting Philippine television in 2021. 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 After past six years of broadcasting in the Philippines, Disney XD has ceased its operations by Disney Branded Television (a unit of Disney General Entertainment Content owned by The Walt Disney Company) across Southeast Asia due to a review of Disney's business direction and the upcoming launch of their own streaming service in the region. Sky Cable terminated GINX Esports TV and Stingray Classica on its line-up due to the expiration of Sky's contract with the said networks. GINX Esports TV continued to air via Cignal and G Sat under the distribution by Mediahouse/Club TV (under Mimyuni Media Entertainment from Kick Media) and SES, while Stingray Classica continued to air via G Sat and selected nationwide cable operators. Celestial Movies Pinoy celebrated its 5th anniversary of broadcasting on cable and satellite television. TV Maria celebrated its 15th anniversary of broadcasting. January 2 – Cignal terminated eight Fox Networks Group (a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company) channels: Channel V, Fox Crime, Fox Family Movies, Fox News Channel, Fox Sports 3, FX, Nat Geo People and Star Chinese Channel, on its line-up due to the expiration of Cignal's contract with the company. Meanwhile, ten Disney/Fox channels continued to air on their line-up until eight of them ceased operations nine months later. January 4 Cignal launched eleven channels on their line-up: Aniplus, Blue Ant Extreme, Jeepney TV, Knowledge Channel, K-Plus, Metro Channel, Nick Jr., Paramount Network (branded from Paramount Channel as prior to the announced February 1 rebranding), TAP Edge, TAP Sports and Telenovela Channel. January 15 – Sari-Sari Channel celebrated its 5th anniversary of broadcasting on cable and satellite television. January 21 – CNN Philippines (via CNN International), One News, and both TAP Edge and TAP TV (via NBC News), as well as other international news channels (including BBC World News, Bloomberg Television, CNBC Asia, CNA and Fox News) aired the special coverage of the Inauguration of Joe Biden live from Washington, D.C. January 24 – ABS-CBN Corporation and PLDT's Beneficial Trust Fund (MediaQuest Holdings through TV5 Network, Inc. and Cignal TV), in collaboration with Brightlight Productions, began a partnership agreement to air Sunday noontime variety show and afternoon movie block via TV5. January 29 – VivaMax made its official launched after a month and 14 days of being in soft operations on December 15, 2020.
February February 1 – Comedy Central (after past seven years of broadcasting in the Philippines) and MTV China have ceased its operations by ViacomCBS across Southeast Asia. In addition, Paramount Channel Asia rebranded as Paramount Network Asia. February 4 – MediaQuest Holdings, through Cignal TV announced a 3-year deal with the Premier Volleyball League to aired the games beginning with the 4th season (17th overall season for the former Shakey's V-League) One Sports, One Sports+, Cignal Play and Smart Gigafest. This is the second league organized by Sports Vision to broadcast on Cignal and One Sports (the first one being Spikers' Turf since 2018). This also the third time that the volleyball league games broadcast on the company since 2005–2006 on ABC-5 (now TV5; under Associated Broadcasting Company, now TV5 Network, Inc.) and 2012–2013 on Hyper (now One Sports+; under MediaQuest) both as the Shakey's V-League, and marked the end of its stint with ABS-CBN Corporation following the non-renewal of its congressional franchise on July 10, 2020, and the dissolution of ABS-CBN Sports division to close its business operations on August 31, 2020. February 6 – JM Yosures of Taguig proclaimed as Tawag ng Tanghalan Year 4 Grand Champion on It's Showtime. February 7 – GMA Network launched "GMA Now", a digital TV dongle for Android smartphones. February 10 – G Sat terminated four Mediahouse/Club TV (under Mimyuni Media Entertainment from Kick Media) and SES channels: GINX Esports TV, Health & Wellness, Luxe & Life and Pet & Pal, as well as four other channels: Amazing Discoveries TV, Fight COVID-19 (information channel), Sonlife Broadcasting Network and Stingray Classica on its line-up due to the revamping of the provider's channel space assignments. Meanwhile, two Mediahouse/Club TV (under Mimyuni Media Entertainment from Kick Media) and SES channels: Motorvision TV and My Cinema Europe, continued to air on their line-up. In addition, G Sat launched eight channels on their line-up: Da Vinci Kids, DreamWorks Channel, Myx, Paramount Network, TAP Edge, TAP Sports, TAP TV and Travel Channel, as well as two returned channels: Aniplus and K-Plus. February 12 – The Healing Eucharist celebrated its 15th anniversary on Philippine television. February 14 – My Only Radio rebranded to "MOR Entertainment", transitioned to a new media (online) entity network from a broadcast terrestrial radio network via multiple digital platforms on Facebook, iWantTFC, Kumu, Spotify and YouTube. February 20 Sky Cable terminated Life TV on its line-up due to the expiration of Sky's contract with the network. Meanwhile, the network continued to air via BEAM TV until its closure on June 1, 2025. Abby Trinidad was hailed as the MNL48's third-generation center girl in the girl group's third general election held on It's Showtime. February 22 – GMA News TV rebranded to GTV (which is also the 2nd incarnation of the same name after it used as an Channel 4 frequency from 1974 to 1980), a secondary channel for news, entertainment and sports content in lieu with their parent network. Prior to the rebranding announcement on February 9 by GMA Network, Inc., GMA News TV increased generalist content (similar to the former Citynet Television and Q) since September 2020 where news and public affairs content were decreased as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. GTV's programming include the upcoming NCAA Philippines (where GMA Network sealed a 5-year deal with the league on November 21, 2020, which led the reason behind the network's rebranding) and GMA News TV's current and existing programming such as weekly public affairs series and newscasts–including Balitanghali, State of the Nation, GMA Regional TV Weekend News (later dropped the "GMA" moniker as Regional TV Weekend News), GMA Regional TV Strip (later dropped the "GMA" moniker as Regional TV Strip), Dobol B sa News TV (later renamed as Dobol B TV), News TV Live (later dropped the "TV" word as News Live) and the simulcast of 24 Oras (for weeknight and later weekend editions), along with movie blocks, Asianovelas and animated series. Following the rebranding of the domestic network to its current name, the News TV brand continued to use through its international version. February 28 – Dobol B TV, iJuander, News Live and State of the Nation celebrated its 10th anniversary on Philippine television.
March March 1 – Light TV celebrated its 10th anniversary of broadcasting. March 5 – Lopez Holdings Corporation (ABS-CBN Corporation) and PLDT's Beneficial Trust Fund (MediaQuest Holdings through Cignal TV and TV5 Network, Inc.) extended their partnership agreement for the airing of weeknight primetime shows produced and distributed from ABS-CBN Entertainment through TV5 that began on March 8. March 6 – Good News celebrated its 10th anniversary on Philippine television. March 8 – TV5 unveiled a new relaunched slogan entitled TV5 TodoMax and a revamped programming grid that divided into five blocks: TodoMax Kids (cartoons and kids-oriented), TodoMax Serbisyo (public service), TodoMax Panalo (weekday noontime and afternoon line-up), TodoMax Primetime (later renamed as TodoMax Primetime Singko; weeknight primetime line-up) and TodoMax Weekend (weekend line-up). March 10 – The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League has resumed their play after almost a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines and the ABS-CBN franchise renewal controversy (which led the closure of its sports division) to finish off the 2019–20 season in a bubble setup in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, with the games being aired on A2Z, iWantTFC and TFC. March 14 – Liofer Pinatacan of Zamboanga del Sur was hailed as the winner of Pinoy Big Brother: Connect. March 16 – CNN Philippines implemented a lay off program covering some of its employees due to COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. March 17 People's Television Network temporary stopped its broadcast and limited its programming through online to allow the disinfection of its studios in Quezon City. Their Twitter account posted a controversial tweet about the attacking of President Rodrigo Duterte with the hashtag #DutertePalpak and the mention of the South Korean boyband group BTS, causing the president pertained to the COVID-19 pandemic as a "small thing in our lives". The network later apologized and filed for an investigation against the mastermind behind the said tweet. ABS-CBN Entertainment and WeTV iflix signed a multi-year partnership to air early access of ABS-CBN's primetime shows on the partners' two streaming services starting on March 20. March 22 – Four GMA News (Balitanghali, Saksi, State of the Nation and Unang Hirit) became the newest addition of newscasts to incorporate simultaneous sign language interpretation for the deaf and hard of hearing on its broadcast, as well as the online livestream on YouTube being converted to high definition. March 29–31 – In protocol response to the emerge wake on the threat surge of uprising COVID-19 cases in the Philippines and the restrictions caused by the second Enhanced Community Quarantine in Greater Manila Area due to the wave of virus mutations in different variants, It's Showtime and Eat Bulaga! cancelled the productions of their annual "Lenten Drama Specials" for the second year. The former aired replays since their second suspension was on March 18, while the latter replaced with the filmed pre-produced episodes before the start of the second lockdown. March 31 - TV Maria has switched its airing of aspect ratio format quality on the channel feed and its programming to high-definition (16:9) as being converted its mitigation of reception through digital signal reception through free TV and other cable and satellite providers after 15 years and 3 months on the usage of broadcast video picture resolution that migrated from standard-definition (4:3).
April April 1–3 GTV revived its Holy Week special programming every Easter Triduum, after 10 years since GMA News TV never used this practice in 2011. Solar Entertainment Corporation announced a 3-day break on four digital free-to-air and pay TV channels: ETC, Front Row Channel, Solar Learning and Solar Sports, in observance of Holy Week. Meanwhile, Shop TV continued to air on pay TV platforms. The English-language ABS-CBN News Channel along with simultaneous telecast of TeleRadyo aired a special Holy Week programming as prior to the surge of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines since last year. The Healing Eucharist aired its special liturgical masses during the Paschal Triduum for this year. The Holy Week Masses was filmed on the ABS-CBN Chapel, instead from the normal studio used in the past years, and it was broadcast simultaneously for three days on cable TV via Kapamilya Channel, online via Kapamilya Online Live and iWantTFC, and on free-to-air via A2Z (where the network has a right of first refusal to carry as part of a programming agreement with ABS-CBN Corporation along with SVD-Mission Communications Foundation's "Seven Last Words", due to the Jesus Is Lord Church Worldwide's ownership). Meanwhile, Jeepney TV continued to carry on a delay basis. April 2