Yesterday’s final House hearing on the Bilibid drug trade was just one of several recent events that GMA News TV was able to air live, a surprise show of commitment to the oft-criticized network. (Screenshot courtesy of Dailymotion and GMA News TV)
The most highly criticized news network in the country is gaining some relevance of late.
GMA News TV saw its stock rise in recent months, as it covered the Senate hearings on extrajudicial killings and the House hearings on the New Bilibid Prisons drug trade. Although their coverage is not as extensive as that of, for example PTV-4 or ABS-CBN News Channel, it was good to see the network finally step up the right way.
In addition to the events at the House of Representatives and the Senate, GMA News TV also committed themselves to air every live address of President Rodrigo Duterte wherever he goes. Of course, as the president is always a priority for live coverage, there have been times that the Senate and House hearings were forced to give way for Duterte.
Such renewed commitment to live coverage was in sharp contrast to the News TV shown during the tenure of President Benigno Aquino III. During his presidency, GMA News TV seemed to be ignorant of his live appearances on a majority of occasions, and this earned the ire of many viewers who wanted a lot more from the said network.
Most House and Senate hearings during Aquino’s tenure were also ignored by News TV. And to make matters worse, the recent visit of Pope Francis and President Aquino’s State of the Nation Addresses were also shunned by News TV as if they were not important events.
That said, it was a surprise to see GMA News TV become all the more committed to show live coverage during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte. With recent events becoming more important than ever, News TV has no choice but to follow every movement as it happens, and this should regain the trust that they lost in the past few years.
Despite this increased devotion to live coverage, GMA News TV still has a lot of holes to address. What will they do with the Koreanovelas, movies, reruns of old news programs and home shopping blocks that have infiltrated their network?
These problems should be the responsibility of Nessa Valdellon, the channel’s head honcho. Let’s just hope that she will follow the footsteps of ABS-CBN News’ Ging Reyes and CNN Philippines’ Armie Jarin-Bennett, and not of News5’s Luchi Cruz-Valdes, in restoring some sense to GMA News TV.
From the Tube 
You got it right but there’s one error, Noynoy’s last SONA in 2015 was snubbed out. The rest from 2011-14, they did cover but on a separate feed unlike ABS, TV5 and Media ng Bayan.
During the preceding administration, there were Congressional hearings that are covered live on Channel 11 such as corruption charges against then Vice President Jejomar Binay from 2014-15 and the Mamasapano incident.
In this present administration, the first SONA of Digong last July 25 is strike one for News TV.
This coverage indeed serves the part of his administration’s platform of hard-line policy against illegal drugs.
Your move, AksyonTV.
Apologies if there are some errors. Still, during the Aquino administration, News TV was pretty much a non-existent player in live events of great importance. Not so now under Duterte. Although, that part where they did not cover the SONA the last two years, they must address it next year, and air it in concert with Channel 7.
In the past, AksyonTV was the one being praised and News TV was the one being criticized. Now it’s the other way around.
I know that it is no better to compare apples and oranges but NewsTV began in Feb 2011, eight months in Noynoy’s term. Duterte gets more attention because the media is assessing to compile the first 100 days.
Too bad News5 didn’t get the memo, probably because of their apparent pro-Duterte stance. In any case, News TV doing more live broadcasts is an improvement. Now we’ll see if they can get rid of those unnecessary non-news shows in order to live up to their name.
I think some non-news and documentaries shows are not easy to get off. If you are watching Saturday and Sunday movies in the afternoon on NEWS TV, it have some TV commercials. So, what is worse among them: to have TV commercials on NEWS TV or nothing?
There’s nothing wrong with relying on commercials. However, GMA is not doing the right thing when it comes to managing their stations. When they launched News TV in 2011, they’re supposed to be the ultimate answer to ANC, which was until then the only local all-news network. Unfortunately, since it airs on VHF Channel 11 where QTV once stood, they were forced to spend a lot. Remember, managing a free-to-air station is costlier than a cable network, and thus News TV was forced to add movies, shopping blocks and even Koreanovelas to mitigate those hefty operating expenses.
Had News TV been established as a cable channel, GMA would’ve had no problems with managing the station. And had GMA did not use the name News TV at all, the confusion would’ve not happened. It really falls down to the right management, and Nessa Valdellon didn’t exactly made News TV great.
At least bumabawi ang GNTV. It’s time that GNTV should phase out those Koreanovela reruns, movies & home shopping. They can just retain their archived documentaries & news programs as fillers instead.
Yes, but I’d rather see them air current N&PA shows from GMA within a week of original airing, plus those documentaries. Old shows such as Pinoy Meets World and Extra Challenge have to go.
But the good news is GMA News TV are now tied with TV5 as the #3 most-watched free-to-air channel in Mega Manila alone from July 24 to October 15 according to Nielsen
The one guy happy with this result is Muning aka Cnor Singson, kung naalala mo siya.
This rebound comes at the heels of TV5’s decision to eliminate all local entertainment programming and shift more towards sports, foreign programs and news, which did not please most of their viewers. It also helped that News TV’s increased commitment to live news coverage helped them regain some footing and confidence, though they still need to get rid of the Koreanovelas, shopping blocks and movies, which while advertiser-friendly, don’t fit their name and content at all.
Oh! So that’s why TV5 is excluded in AGB Urban Ratings for more than a month.
They have stopped producing local entertainment shows, obviously, so what’s the point of competing if you’re no longer interested in such things.
Opposite to News TV, they have some entertainment programs and having a shows hosted by celebrities.
Even if they’re tied with TV5 for No. 3, their programming still don’t make any sense. They are still a ‘general entertainment channel masquerading as a news channel’. They’re not like CNN Philippines, ANC or DZMM TeleRadyo when it comes to news channels.
I still think that they are just the second coming of QTV instead of a different channel altogether.