Looks like a new trend in primetime newscasts has begun.
In response to ‘TV Patrol’ now airing at around 6:40 p.m. due to ‘It’s Showtime’ exceeding beyond its allotted time, GMA countered by having rival newscast ’24 Oras’ air 10-20 minutes later than its previous timeslot. To do that, GMA intentionally allowed one of its programs to go past its duration.
That turned out to be the teleserye ‘Ika-6 na Utos’, which usually airs for only 45-50 minutes at best. But Wednesday afternoon (see episode hashtag below) saw ‘Ika-6 na Utos’ go beyond its usual running time and air for 80 minutes, uncharacteristically long for a teleserye.
GMA’s version of Vice Ganda and company excessively talking for minutes came by way of long commercial breaks. But much like what ABS-CBN allowed (whether intentional or not) ‘It’s Showtime’ to do, isn’t this a little too much for viewers to take?
Consider this: ‘It’s Showtime”s archrival ‘Eat Bulaga’ is only given 2 1/2 hours of airtime by GMA from Monday to Friday due to its blocktimer status. GMA can’t obviously loosen this rule because even Antonio Tuviera is strict enough to enforce such a ruling.
They also cannot allow ‘Wowowin’ to go past its allotted time and go live because of Willie Revillame’s past controversies. The onus fell on one of GMA’s afternoon teleseryes, and that turned out to be its highest-rated program ‘Ika-6 na Utos’.
This is definitely a bad case of ‘fight fire with fire’. The recent shenanigans of ABS-CBN and GMA dragged its other programs down, and it also affected the airtimes of the respective networks’ late-night newscasts in ‘Bandila’ and ‘Saksi’.
If this game of one-upsmanship continues, both ‘TV Patrol’ and ’24 Oras’ might end up airing at an uncharacteristically late timeslot of 7:00 p.m. Not a good way to kick off the primetime slate.
But at least there are earlier primetime newscasts that viewers can tune in to. The choices include PTV-4’s ‘PTV News’ (if viewers can tolerate Erwin Tulfo’s biased reporting), CNN Philippines’ ‘News Night’, Net 25’s ‘Mata ng Agila’, UNTV’s ‘Ito ang Balita’ and even ‘Top Story’ of the ABS-CBN News Channel.
Apologies to T5N’s ‘Aksyon Prime’, but its timeslot inconsistencies are too much to handle. But regardless of that, alternatives in primetime news are worth the time and money.
Still, ABS-CBN and GMA should know all too well that time is precious. They could at least adjust this new trend in primetime programming, but they need to stop allowing its programs to go overtime so as not to compromise the patience of viewers.
From the Tube 
Correction, Ralph. It’s News Night not Newsroom.
Oops. Sorry about that.
Way back 90’s, pagtuntong palang ng 6pm, its either TVPatrol or Frontpage agad ang nasa isip ng manonood, Balita agad. Kasi yun ang naging habit na ng mga tao. Kaso nabago lahat, I remembered during TV patrol world era, naging 6:15pa yan hanggang malipat ng 6:30. Tapos ngayon 6:45 to 7pm na. Hindi ba dapat prioritized ng mga networks ang kanilang mga flagship newscast? If this trend continues, the third player for primetime news, will emerge. I guess it will be CNN phils.
Frontpage actually became a primetime newscast noong mga early 2000s. Saksi and before that GMA Headline Balita dati ang kalaban ng TV Patrol.
It really is an alarming trend for newscasts to go from just in time for the sunset all the way to rush hour. To be fair, nagbabago rin ang viewing habits ng mga Pinoy. Tapos mas dumarami na ang mga ‘night owls’ na nagtatrabaho sa mga call center at mas talamak ngayon ang traffic kaya nala-late ang mga Pinoy. Whether we like it or not, ABS and GMA are adjusting to the evolving needs of the consumer kaya for some reason or another ineere na nila ng late ang mga primetime newscasts nila. But for the traditionalists meron pa namang alternatibo as I previously mentioned before. Meron mga newscasts ng PTV, Net 25, CNNPH at UNTV na 6 pm talaga ang start. Saka less on sensationalism at balitang krimen ang mga ito unlike sa TV Patrol or 24 Oras. There’s also Top Story on ANC kaso nasa cable at iWant TV lang ito.
Times changed bro. You can just read news on the net (even on social medias) today. That’s why kahit 6:30-7pm na ng gabi, iba ang iniisip ng tao maliban sa balita, because they can just watch the rewind on YouTube or just choose news segments they prefer to watch.
Remember Showbiz TV shows like “The Buzz”, “Startalk”, and “Showbiz Central”? I think IMO, they were removed because of the habits of Filipinos in getting news from showbiz. Today, they don’t have to watch these shows for easy scoops. They can just surf Rappler, Spin.Ph, Twitter, and other news media (even From The Tube WordPress hehe) to know the happenings. Although there is the Tonight with Boy Abunda show every late weeknights, still the show is runs on a short time, unlike The Buzz, Startalk and SC.
Showbiz talk shows are redundant given the rise of social media. But the same cannot be said for news per se. Social media and online presence is only secondary; marami pa rin ang nanonood o nakikinig ng balita sa TV or radyo. At meron pa ring diyaryo. Not even an unexpected change in timeslot can alter their approach.
Alright, they’re adapting to the new habits of Filipinos. Question is: why didn’t they tell us?
Why don’t you ask them.
Correction: GMA Headline Balita was the nickname of Saksi when it 1st aired in 1995
They did actually. Sorry for that. It was GMA Network News.
IANU is also ending soon.
They will, next week. Its successor will not have a Saturday edition though. More on that in next week’s articles.
Pingback: Of It’s Showtime and of Our Traditional Media’s Time Consciousness | Timow's Turf
…So 19:00 would become the established time for flagship newscasts in the near future, but I personally though that PTV should take the lead.
There are other primetime newscasts that start at 6. And then there’s ANC’s Top Story which start at 5:30, technically primetime territory for them. There are other choices besides TV Patrol and 24 Oras to get a fix of the news.
Pingback: Ika-6 na Utos to End This Saturday, But Not Without Controversy | From the Tube
UNTV’s Ito ang Balita is the earliest among the other flagship newscasts you mentioed. They air at exactly 5:30PM-6:30PM after now-defunct Wish 107.5 TV as far as I can remember. But not until Serbisyong Kasangbahay entered. Although the longest newscast of 37 airs late due to few minutes of overtime made by SK, IAB is still the early bird.
Same as ANC’s Top Story on weekdays. Technically they are considered primetime newscasts considering they air close to the typical start of primetime which is now around 5:45 to 5:50 p.m.
News content is public service, yan dapat ang priority ng lahat ng TV stations. Anong sabi sa Showtime? This is your show, this is your time. pagbigyan naman ng sapat na time ang mga manonood para sa mahalagang information.
Kahit nga GMA nakikisabay na rin sa kalokohan ng ABS for the sake of ‘fair’ competition. In fact, one of their teleseryes is airing much longer than intended to para lang maki-sabay sa OT ng Showtime. Dapat parehong sisihin ang dalawang network na yan dahil kinompromiso nila ang kapanan ng mga manonood by having one of their shows go OT and have their newscasts air later than usual.
Isa pa, sa ibang bansa, gaya ng mga state TV channels sa UK (BBC), Malaysia, China, Vietnam at Russia, naglalagay pa sila ng full screen ‘clock ident’ bago magsimula ang news para maipakita nilang punctual sila sa scheduling ng ganung klaseng public service TV content, not only to give ‘go signal’ to all provincial stations to simulcast the show form the mother station.
Too bad the Philippines is no longer that adept when it comes to time management and punctuality. Tayo lang yata ang laging unpredictable pagdating sa oras. Kung dati sinasabi nila kung anong oras ipapalabas ang naturang programa, ngayon sinasabi nila ng ‘pagkatapos ng’ o ‘bago mag-‘ dahil hindi na talaga alam kung anong oras magsisimula. Times really changed now on PHTV.
Tanong ko lang, nasa Canada na ako at pati dito may habit din ang mga international versions ng GMA na mag-overtime. Bat hindi to pina-reregulate ng MTRCB?
I’m not sure why. Besides, the only regulation that they’re doing are for commercial breaks and television and movie ratings. They don’t control the running time of a live show since certain live broadcasts (e.g. sporting events) are not compelled to cut their broadcast short for the next show due to its unpredictable nature.