ANC? TeleRadyo? A unified news channel?
On Thursday, September 22, Bilyonaryo broke the news that ABS-CBN execs were given proposals to either save one between the network’s news channels ANC and TeleRadyo or merge both stations and their programming into a single channel. According to the unnamed source in the article, the plan was churned out as both channels were generating losses even prior to the shutdown of the main terrestrial network in 2020.
If the abovementioned plan pushes through, the other entity is planned to be axed just before this year ends. But the silver lining is: nothing is set in stone just yet and execs are yet to determine the fate of the news outlets.
In this article, we’ll delve on that possibility of a merger and churn out a “fantasy schedule” to see how much effect will that have on the programming front. Apart from that, there will also be suggestions on digital accounts and streaming.
For the purpose of this article only, the combined channel will be named ABS-CBN News, based on the network’s division, as well as its social media accounts. Effectively, this proposed channel would be a rebrand of ANC, with TeleRadyo being absorbed into it as a block. As for the DTT channel space of TeleRadyo, the unified channel should be poised to take over that spot.
Weekdays
- 12:00mn – The World Tonight (replay)
- 12:30am – TV Patrol Weekend (replay on Mon) / TV Patrol (replay on Tue-Fri)
- 1:30am (Mon) / 2:00am (Tue-Fri) – ANC Replays
- 4:00am – Playback
- 5:00am – Rundown @ 5AM
- 5:30am – Kapamilya Daily Mass
- 6:00am – Sakto (simulcast on Kapamilya Channel)
- 7:00am – Kabayan
- 8:00am – Headstart
- 9:00am – Market Edge @ 9AM
- 9:30am – Lingkod Kapamilya
- 10:30am – Hapinay
- 11:30am – Headline Pilipinas (merge with TeleRadyo Balita)
- 12:00nn – Dateline Philippines
- 1:00pm – ANC Conversations / Malacañang Press Conference
- 2:00pm – Rundown @ 2PM
- 2:30pm – ANC Replays
- 3:00pm – Market Edge @ 3PM
- 4:00pm – On the Spot
- 5:00pm – Top Story
- 5:30pm – Pasada
- 6:30pm – TV Patrol
- 8:00pm – SRO
- 9:00pm – Bandila
- 9:30pm – ANC Current Affairs
- 10:00pm – The World Tonight
- 10:30pm – Business Nightly
- 11:00pm – ANC Documentary Hour
Foremost, in this unified channel, there shall be three major blocks comprised of the following: unbranded English-language blocks; the TeleRadyo Filipino news and commentary blocks; and finally, the unbranded lifestyle programming blocks.
With that, each day’s programming will begin an early morning edition kf Rundown @ 5AM, which will carry over the displaced 10 AM edition — which will also essentially be a revival of a sole early morning newscast of ABS-CBN News. The Kapamilya Daily Mass and Sakto, which are the current lead-in morning shows of TeleRadyo, will air from 5:30 am. After that, Kabayan with Noli de Castro can be moved up to an hour earlier to start at 7:00am. In this schedule though, the current TeleRadyo Balita at 7:30 will have to go. Over at ANC, the affected program will be the 7:00 am edition of Rundown — whose format can be retained elsewhere in the schedule.
Following that, the English-language programs led by Headstart with Karen Davila shall remain at 8:00 and will still be followed by Market Edge. However, the latter will have to be shortened to 30 minutes in order to accommodate TeleRadyo programs from 9:30 to noon. Lingkod Kapamilya will follow Market Edge, while Hapinay will have to be moved from its current 4:00pm timeslot to 10:30 am. As for Headline Pilipinas, the flagship noontime newscast can be moved up to 11:30 am, effectively competing with GTV’s Balitanghali, among other news shows.
At noon, Dateline Philippines will switch back the channel’s programming to English. The program will the be followed by ANC Conversations at 1:00 pm, a ‘rebrand’ of the displaced 7:00 am Rundown format and could still be anchored by Atty. Mike Navallo and Nikki de Guzman. At 2:00 pm, another edition of Rundown will be aired, as an optional replay block can be put at 2:30 pm. After that, Market Edge will air once more with an expanded 3:00 pm edition, which will carry over the show’s current 9:00 am format.
By 4:00 pm, On The Spot (which coincidentally was the title of DZMM’s 4:00 pm newscast pre-shutdown) will switch spots with Hapinay. But the program can opt to switch to a primarily English show in order to allow for a 5 1/2 hour English block on the channel, which will end with Top Story from 5:00 to 5:30 pm.
By 5:30 pm, Pasada will continue to air right before TV Patrol kicks off at 6:30 pm. At 8:00 pm, SRO will still be retained. However, at 9:00 pm, a Filipino-language news summary can be aired and be named Bandila, but will be formatted as a TeleRadyo program more than a TV newscast like TVP. That ‘Bandila’ can also be anchored by both Alvin Elchico and Doris Bigornia, as they currently do present SRO.
At 9:30, the English-language block will return once more with the current affairs/lifestyle shows being aired at present by ANC at 6:00pm. The World Tonight will then move back to its pre-2015 timeslot of 10:00 o’clock. In order to compensate for the truncation of business shows on the unified channel, Business Nightly should be revived and be aired right after TWT at 10:30 pm. Then, a Documentary Hour will air from 11:00 pm.
Like how both channels are currently structured, repeats of programs will be aired between 12:00 mn until 5:30 am.
As for hourly bulletins, both ANC Headlines (in English) and Balita Ngayon (in Filipino) can be kept and aired during their respective blocks. But there is also an option to instead air News Patrol as the channel’s unified bulletin, with some editions being simultaneously aired over at Kapamilya Channel and/or A2Z. As for the mode of delivery for special coverages on the combined channel will then have to depend on the timeslot being occupied by the said coverage, with the exception of natural calamities and other emergencies — where all of those shall be delivered in Filipino.
In the abovementioned schedule, the unified news channel will be able to offer live program every hour from 5:00 am to 11:00 pm, which is costly, but rather less expensive than operating two channels when taking into account that most of the programming and resources will come from both ANC and TeleRadyo. On DTT, broadcast hours for this channel is suggested to be from 5:00 am to 11:00 pm, seven days a week.
Saturdays
- 12:00mn – The World Tonight (replay)
- 12:30am – TV Patrol (replay)
- 2:00am – ANC Replays / TFC shows
- 4:00am – Playback
- 5:30am – Kapamilya Daily Mass
- 6:00am – Kapamilya Journeys of Hope
- 7:00am – Rundown @ 7AM
- 7:30am – Current Affairs Throwback (Old ABS-CBN Current Affairs shows)
- 8:00am – Diskarte
- 9:00am – Your Daily Do’s
- 10:00am – Winner sa Life
- 11:00am – Bida Konsyumer
- 12:00nn – Dateline Philippines
- 12:30pm – ANC Replays
- 1:00pm – ANC Conversations
- 2:00pm – Dr. Love
- 4:00pm – Juander Titser
- 5:00pm – Top Story
- 5:30pm – On The Money (replay)
- 6:00pm – TV Patrol Weekend
- 7:00pm – Omaga-Diaz Reports
- 8:00pm – KBYN (replay)
- 9:00pm – ANC Replays / Tina Monzon-Palma Reports
- 10:00pm – The World Tonight
- 10:30pm – ANC Current Affairs
- 11:00pm – ANC Documentary Hour
Sundays
- 12:00mn – The World Tonight (replay)
- 12:30am – TV Patrol Weekend (replay)
- 1:30am – ANC Replays / TFC shows
- 4:00am – Playback
- 6:00am – Healing Eucharist Mass
- 7:00am – Rundown @ 7AM
- 7:30am – Current Affairs Throwback (Old ABS-CBN Current Affairs shows)
- 8:00am – Kapamilya Journeys of Hope
- 9:00am – Good Job
- 10:30am – Tulong Ko, Pasa Mo
- 12:00nn – Dateline Philippines
- 12:30pm – G Diaries / ANC Replays
- 1:00pm – Gametime (or Off the Record)
- 2:00pm – Dr. Love
- 4:00pm – Kapamilya Konek
- 5:00pm – Top Story
- 5:30pm – ANC Replays
- 6:00pm – TV Patrol Weekend
- 7:00pm – KBYN (delayed telecast)
- 8:00pm – Current Affairs Throwback (Old ABS-CBN Current Affairs shows) / Tina Monzon-Palma Reports (replay)
- 9:00pm – Asian Air Safari
- 9:30pm – ANC Replays
- 10:00pm – The World Tonight
- 10:30pm – Rosaryo ng Bayan: Holy Rosary on the Air
- 11:00pm – ANC Documentary Hour
With the lack of original (and fresh) programming from ANC on weekends, most of the unified channel’s weekend shows will have to mostly draw upon TeleRadyo’s lineup.
From 4:00 to 7:00 am, TeleRadyo shows will be aired in the form of repeats and religious programming. At 7:00, an edition of Rundown will be aired, with the TeleRadyo block continuing from 7:30 am onwards.
At 12:00 nn, Dateline Philippines will be aired, leading the two-hour noontime English block which will feature a repeat of a show at 12:30, and ANC Conversations at 1:00 pm on Saturdays. As for that edition of Conversations, it will keep the current format presented by Lexi Schulze. Meanwhile, on Sundays, there is an option of either reviving Gametime as a discussion program on sports or outright broadcasting ABS-CBN Sports’ Off The Record podcast on TV.
From 2:00 to 5:00 pm on both days, TeleRadyo will resume with Dr. Love and Juander Titser (on Saturdays) and Kapamilya Konek (on Sundays).
For an hour from 5:00 to 6:00 pm, the English-language block will return with Top Story at 5 and a encore of a program at 5:30. This time, though, Top Story can be reexpanded to also air on Sunday.
TV Patrol Weekend will then lead the TeleRadyo block on primetime, which will also feature Omaga-Diaz Reports (which will then be transferred to Saturday primetime to accommodate Diskarte) at 7:00 pm, while KBYN airs on a delayed basis on Sundays. Replays will then occupy the last hour of the block on weekends.
Every Saturday, the 9:00 pm slot will signal the return to the English block and will be occupied by repeats of ANC shows. However, the same slot will then be utilized for the broadcast of Tina Monzon-Palma Reports which only airs once a month. The World Tonight can also restore its 7-editions-a-week setup.
TeleRadyo’s Rosaryo ng Bayan can then be carried over to the combined channel and be aired at 10:30 pm on Sundays. As for Documentary Hour, like on weekdays, it will be at 11:00 pm on weekends.
On the digital side of things, the combined channel will continue to operate the existing social media accounts of both channels.
On YouTube, the flagship ABS-CBN News channel must livestream the channel’s content from 5:30 am all the way to 11:00 pm, ala Kapamilya Online Live over at ABS-CBN Entertainment. But to allow other channels to gain traction, this YouTube channel can shift to uploading clips from TV Patrol, selected highlights and full episode of shows from the ABS-CBN News channel on TV and digital, and throwback videos of past current affairs shows. Live stream of important news coverages can also continue. As for the livestreaming of individual shows, that has to be discontinued in favor of the KOL-like service.
As for ANC’s current YT channel, it can keep operating as a place for clips and other soundbites from the English-language programs. Then, it shall be rebranded somewhere along the lines of ABS-CBN News – English or ABS-CBN News – Global — ultimately adding TFC news clips in the process.
Meanwhile, TeleRadyo’s YouTube page will also be kept, as well as the audio livestream for the channel, but to reflect the changes, it must be renamed as something like ABS-CBN News – TeleRadyo.
The rebranding exercise should then be spread for other social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, among others.
With the long histories of both ANC and TeleRadyo, it would be a shame to see one of them go, especially in an era that is increasingly challenging for credible news outlets. However, it is also due to that very climate that a much formidable outlet and a bigger force to reckon with in the industry should rise.
If change is indeed inevitable and will come sooner than what we all think, then the only way for them to maintain and build upon the legacies of both iconic news channels in the country is by bringing them together under one giant umbrella.
Trendrod Box 