I know we don't post much about Asian broadcasting networks here but given that this concerns Asia's first commercial TV network, it's a big deal that it goes off the air as it no longer has a franchise (licence) although its renewal is pending: https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/05/20/ntc-orders-abs-cbn-to-stop-broadcasting .
Even the lead journalists in the main newscast have expressed sadness not for themselves but for the off-camera staff who work at the network and help them look good.
Last edited by headliner101 on 5 May 2020 4:31pm - 2 times in total
Because ABS CBN has been very critical of Duerte the president. And he hates them. He came into power same year as Trump and is just as insane. He doesnt like the rich family that runs the network and he vowed not to renew their license and clearly its come true. This almost akin to like ITV being shut down. Though its only 25 years old.
ABS-CBN, the Philippines' largest television network, has been ordered to cease operations after President Rodrigo Duterte's allies in Congress refused to renew the station's 25-year licence.
In an order issued on Tuesday, the government agency tasked with awarding broadcasting licences said "absent a valid Congressional Franchise, as required by law", the network should stop its various television and radio operations.
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The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said ABS-CBN's license expired on May 4 and gave the station 10 days to respond.
In an interview with ABS-CBN's radio station, DZMM, NTC Deputy Commissioner Edgardo Cabarios said that the order is "immediately executory", and Department of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra affirmed the legal opinion.
In a statement, which was first read on-air over DZMM, the ABS-CBN management said that it will abide by the order and will stop operation by the end of Tuesday.
Duterte's war on drugs and those reporting it - The Listening Post
After ABS-CBN files its response within the next 10 days, a hearing will be scheduled as soon as the coronavirus emergency lockdown in Metro Manila and other areas of the country is lifted.
On Sunday, Duterte's Solicitor-General Jose Calida issued a statement warning the NTC of prosecution if it did not carry out the closure order.
Calida, the top government lawyer, said there was no legal basis to give the company even a provisional licence as it awaited approval from Congress, which resumed its session on Monday after a recess.
Brazen clampdown of the freedom of the press
In a speech at the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Congress member Arlene Brosas denounced the order as a "brazen clampdown of the freedom of the press."
Danilo Arao, journalism professor at the University of the Philippines, said that NTC's decision reflects that limits of its independence as a government body under the office of the president.
We call on the community of independent Filipino journalists and on all Filipinos who cherish democracy and liberty to stand together and resist this government’s brazen assault on freedom of the press and of expression.
— NUJP (@nujp) May 5, 2020
"This closure order is clearly an attack on press freedom and we should confront this head on. The administration should be exposed as the real enemy of press freedom," he told Al Jazeera.
Since becoming president in June 2016, Duterte repeatedly expressed his disdain towards the television network, which is owned by one of the richest families in the Philippines.
Duterte claimed that ABS-CBN refused to run his political advertisements during the campaign season - allegations denied by the network.
ABS-CBN's coverage of Duterte's so-called war on drugs, which has killed thousands of people, also angered the Philippine president.
On many occasions, Duterte has threatened to block the renewal of the network's franchise, while suggesting the owners should sell the company to break the impasse. At the same time, he insisted his hand-picked leaders in Congress were free to decide on the issue.
Media on notice in the Philippines - The Listening Post (Full)
Calida, the solicitor-general, maintained that the NTC has no power to issue any such licence to ABS-CBN, citing provisions in the Philippine Constitution which, he said, gave Congress "exclusive powers".
"Although this legislative power may be delegated to administrative agencies through a law, at present, there is no such law giving the NTC or any other agency the power to grant franchises to broadcasting entities."
A 2003 Philippine Supreme Court decision also ruled that the NTC could not issue a provisional permit without the legislature's backing.
In a statement on Tuesday, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines denounced the "dastardly move" of the Duterte administration.
"All this stems from President Rodrigo Duterte's personal vendetta against the network, whose franchise renewal he pledged to block.
"It sends a clear message: What Duterte wants, Duterte gets. And it is clear, with this brazen move to shut down ABS-CBN, that he intends to silence the critical media and intimidate everyone else into submission."
Hard to overstate how important ABS-CBN is in the Philippines. As the largest commercial broadcaster you could say it'd be like shutting ITV down, but in terms of the services it provides on TV, radio and internationally and the place it holds in national culture, it's closer to the BBC.
No, those are channel numbers for viewing the main channel outside the flagship viewing area (Metro Manila) - sort of like the arrangements for viewing US TV networks outside New York (e.g. CBS on channel 9 in Washington). Those channels have ceased transmission of ABS-CBN content too. But the company's pay-TV news channel, ANC, is permitted to continue operating as the order does not cover its pay-TV or web/mobile-only services.
I take it, they went out with a list of alternative tv channels to watch, or, these could be next on the hit list..
..depending on your point of view.
Many years since I've been there but I remember all stations had a very formal closedown routine when going off air at the end of the night, with a list of all the VHF channels they were broadcasting on in different regions and I think a list of engineers working on the channel, before the national anthem. I don't know how things might have changed in the years since, with digital television and I'm sure probably 24-hour broadcasting, but the clip looked like that kind of closedown sign-off routine.
^^
Yes. In the Philippines, almost every free-to-air channel undergoes a closedown every night even today. 24-hour channels exist largely only on pay-TV.
Here's what the final moments looked like in the newsroom. In the first video, the gentleman holding the phone at about 0:16 was one of the presenters of the final newscast:
Scenes in the newsroom during the final broadcast of TV Patrol and ABS-CBN following the cease and desist order of the National Telecommunications Commission for the network to broadcast on air.
Because ABS CBN has been very critical of Duerte the president. And he hates them. He came into power same year as Trump and is just as insane. He doesnt like the rich family that runs the network and he vowed not to renew their license and clearly its come true. This almost akin to like ITV being shut down. Though its only 25 years old.
Their current license is only 25 years old -- they were prevented from broadcasting during the martial law era -- but their history goes much further back:
Here's an excerpt about television in the Philippines, including ABS-CBN, from Timothy Green's 1972 book
The Universal Eye: World Television in the Seventies:
