Pinoy TV | bryandel

Pinoy TV – In March 2008, ABC president and CEO Antonio Cojuangco announced that ABC had entered into a major block time agreement with MPB Primedia Inc., a local company backed by Media Prima Berhad of Malaysia as part of a long-term strategy to make the network more competitive. Cojuangco said MPB Primedia Inc., in principle, would produce and source most of the entertainment programs while ABC would continue to be responsible for news programming and operation of the stations. ^[1] Christopher Sy was named CEO of MPB Primedia, Inc.; he served in that capacity until his resignation in January 2009 due to reported differences in management style.^[2]

ABC “signed off” on August 8, and then aired a countdown to the re-launch for much of the next day until 19:00 PST, when the new lineup began under their new branding of TV5 . Despite the name change, the corporate name will still be Associated Broadcasting Company and Tonyboy Cojuangco will remain its CEO^[6]. Shall We Dance, some shows in Nick on TV5, Kerygma TV, Light Talk, and Sunday TV Mass were the only ABC programs carried-over to the line-up of TV5.

In December 2008, a lawsuit was filed by GMA Network against ABC, and MPB Primedia, Inc. seeking to nullify the block time agreement between the companies; Media Prima Berhad was impleaded in the suit as well.^[7] GMA argued that the agreement violated the Philippine constitution, which restricts mass media ownership to Filipino companies, and that MPB Primedia was established in Malaysia do skirt these laws.^[7] In response, ABC’s media relations head Pat Marcelo-Magbanua reiterated that the network was a Filipino company which was self-registered and Filipino-run.^[8]

Under the management of MPB together with the local key managers assembled, Primedia delivered significant success where TV5 performance was completely revitalized. TV5’s audience share increased substantially from 1.9% in July 2008 (prior to the re-branding by Primedia) to 11.1%* in September 2009. This achievement has catapulted TV5 as the clear number 3 station in the Philippines. (*Source: AGB-NMR Arianna)

On October 20, 2009, Media Prima Berhad (MPB) announced that is set to recover its investment in the Philippines following the proposed divestment of its entire 70 per cent equity stake in its subsidiary, MPB Primedia Inc (“Primedia”) to Mediaquest Holdings Inc.(a subsidiary of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.), on the early months of 2010, TV5 will be rebranded and relaunched under its new management and new stars and shows.

Live TV, TV5