Television in the Philippines


Television in the Philippines was introduced in October 1953.

Free-to-air television networks

Major television networks

  • GMA Network: Launched on October 29, 1961, by American journalist Robert Stewart under the name Republic Broadcasting System (RBS), it was the fourth television station launched in the Philippines. The network was shut down on September 23, 1972 due to martial law but returned in December of the same year after it was allowed by the government. In 1974, RBS changed its name to GMA Radio-Television Arts after the takeover by the new management by the triumvirate composed of Gilberto Duavit Sr., Menardo Jimenez, and Felipe Gozon. It eventually became one of the top stations in the country. The network was rebranded as GMA Rainbow Satellite Network in 1992 before it adopted its current name GMA Network in 1995.
  • TV5: Launched in July 1962,[1] by Chino Roces of The Manila Times as ABC, it was the seventh television station launched in the Philippines. On September 23, 1972, ABC was one of the networks forcefully shut down by then-President Ferdinand Marcos due to the implementation of martial law. On February 21, 1992, ABC returned to television and became the fastest-growing network. On August 9, 2008, the network was relaunched as TV5. The network is currently owned by PLDT's media arm, MediaQuest Holdings of Manny V. Pangilinan.

Pre-Major television networks

Speciality Major television networks

  • Blast Sports is a digital free-to-air sports-oriented channel of TAP Digital Media Ventures Corporation. It began its broadcast on BEAM TV's digital terrestrial broadcast nationwide on January 17, 2024 in soft launch mode. The new channel offers selected sporting events that also airs on TAP Sports and Premier Sports.
  • Heart of Asia Channel: known on-air as Heart of Asia, is a Philippine free-to-air television channel owned by GMA Network Inc. The channel was on test broadcast from June 12–28, 2020 and was officially launched on June 29, 2020.
  • I Heart Movies: is a Philippine free-to-air television channel owned by GMA Network Inc. The channel was on test broadcast from March 22, 2021, until March 31, 2021, and was officially launched on April 5, 2021.
  • One Sports: is a television station of TV5 Network Inc. with Nation Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) as its primary content provider and was launched on March 8, 2020. One Sports serves as a sports channel for The 5 Network with its programs primarily produced by its sports division of the same name. It was formerly called 5 Plus, when it was launched on January 13, 2019, and AksyonTV, a Filipino-language news channel launched by TV5 in 2011–2019.
  • PRTV Prime Media: (also known as Prime TV) is a Philippine free-to-air digital television channel owned by Prime Media Holdings thru Philippine Collective Media Corporation. It serves as the national extension of PCMC's PRTV brand, which is currently used on its regional television station in Tacloban. the channel began its test broadcast from May 27, 2024 until July 14, 2024 and was officially launched on July 15, 2024 on BEAM TV's digital subchannel broadcast featuring TeleRadyo Serbisyo (now as DZMM TeleRadyo) programming and a simulcast of ABS-CBN News' TV Patrol.

Government-owned television networks

Minor television networks

Religious television networks

Regional television networks

Most viewed channels

Position Channel Share of total viewing (%)
1 GMA Network 47.6
2 TV5 15.5
3 GTV 10.7
4 A2Z 8.3

Television In The Philippines Media

References

  1. "International TV Directory". Television Factbook (PDF). Television Digest, Inc. 1970. p. 1056. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 9, 2021. Retrieved May 14, 2024.