TV5 Rebrands Its Newscasts Under the Aksyon Banner

Starting July 14, TV5’s ‘Aksyon’  newscasts will not only be seen in the early evening, but also in the morning, at noontime and during late nights. (Photo credit: News5 Everywhere)

Goodbye ‘Good Morning Ser’, ‘Andar ng mga Balita’, and ‘Pilipinas News’.

As part of its ongoing ‘Signal No. 5: Umuulan ng Saya’ campaign, TV5 has announced that its newscasts will be rebranded under the ‘Aksyon’ banner beginning this July 14. The newscasts are as follows: ‘Aksyon sa Umaga’, ‘Aksyon sa Tanghali’, and ‘Aksyon Tonite’. The three newscasts will be joined by the flagship early evening newscast ‘Aksyon’.

As a result of the rebrand,  ‘Good Morning Ser’ (formerly ‘Good Morning Club’), ‘Andar ng mga Balita’ and ‘Pilipinas News’ will bid farewell today after a three-year run. ‘Pilipinas News Weekend’ will then air its final newscast on Sunday, with a replacement yet to be determined.

‘Aksyon sa Umaga’ will retain the services of Martin Andanar and Lourd de Veyra from ‘Good Morning Ser’. In addition, Grace Lee, who previously anchored ‘Aksyon Weekend’ and hosted ‘Good Morning Girls’, will be added as the third anchor. Like its predecessor, it will be a two-hour news and talk-based program.

‘Aksyon sa Tanghali’ will be anchored by Raffy Tulfo and Cherie Mercado. The ‘T3: Reload’ and ‘Wanted sa Radyo’ host is no stranger to anchoring a noontime newscast, having anchored ‘Balitaang Tapat’ two years earlier. Meanwhile Cherie Mercado moves from late nights to noontime after anchoring ‘Pilipinas News’ for over two years.

The flagship ‘Aksyon’ newscast will still be anchored by Erwin Tulfo, but his new partner will be no less than News5’s Head of News and Information, Luchi Cruz-Valdes. Luchi’s ‘Reaksyon’ program will no longer be independent from any newscast, but instead it will be incorporated as one of the segments of ‘Aksyon’.

And finally, ‘Aksyon Tonite’ will retain Paolo Bediones from ‘Pilipinas News’, but Cheryl Cosim from ‘Aksyon’ will now serve as his new partner. Like its predecessor, ‘Aksyon Tonite’ will be a 30-minute newscast that will recap the biggest news of the day.

The rebranded ‘Aksyon’ newscasts, along with ‘Aksyon Alert’ and ‘Aksyon Breaking’ news updates, are intended to strengthen and unify TV5’s news department under the ‘One Brand News Program’ approach. But it remains to be seen if the rebrand to ‘Aksyon’ will pay off.

New Timeslot for ‘T3’

‘T3: Reload’ was scheduled to move to a new timeslot this Monday. However, the change of timeslot came a week early.

Last Monday, viewers were surprised to see Raffy and Ben Tulfo host their public service program at noontime. Monday’s edition of ‘T3’ was actually a replay of last Friday’s episode, but it was not until the live Tuesday edition that the Tulfo brothers officially confirmed the show’s new timeslot.

‘T3: Reload”s move to noontime was intended to accommodate the NCAA Season 90 seniors basketball game on TV5, which moved to 4:00 p.m. from 2:00 p.m. the previous week. However, AksyonTV and Radyo5 92.3 News FM did not air the program simultaneously (‘Relasyon’ of Atty. Mel Sta. Maria and Luchi Cruz-Valdes was aired instead), as they were not informed of ‘T3”s premature timeslot change.

However, expect both AksyonTV and Radyo5 to make some changes in their programming lineup this Monday, in order to accommodate ‘T3: Reload’ and ‘Aksyon’ newscasts.

TV5 Continues its Rebuild

The painful rebuilding process continues for TV5, in an effort to earn a sizable audience.

Over half a year ago, TV5 established its ‘Weekend Do It Better’, ‘Karunungan, Balita at Opinyon’, and ‘Everyday All the Way’ blocks. However, as the calendar flipped to 2014, these programming blocks were deemphasized and it appears TV5 is not satisfied with how they turned out.

Through the first four months, TV5 gradually brought in new programs as part of its continuous restructuring process, which also included a relocation away from its old Novaliches headquarters in favor of the newly-opened TV5 Media Center in Mandaluyong. The adjustment to a new location was difficult though, as the staff attempted to learn new digital-based methods in producing its programs.

In the news department came in Saturday night public affairs series ‘Kaya’ and ‘Yaman ng Bayan’, and the Thursday night program ‘Bigtime’. On the other hand, ‘Good Morning Club’ once again claimed its position as the only morning news program with a running time of under two hours, when management decided to cancel the ‘Good Morning Girls’ and ‘Good Morning MamuTin’ segments (which were taped as opposed to live broadcast on other programs), and renamed ‘GMC’ as ‘Good Morning Ser’.

In terms of entertainment, TV5 replaced ‘Madam Chairman’ with ‘Confessions of a Torpe’, while introducing another ‘tawaserye’ in ‘Beki Boxer’. On the other side of the spectrum, ‘Celebrity Dance Battle’ essentially replaced ‘Killer Karaoke Pinoy Naman’, though the latter program remained on air until April, when it was finally cancelled in favor of the sitcom ‘One of the Boys’.

And finally, TV5 partially satisfied basketball fans by airing live PBA games almost every day in primetime, including an increase of Saturday broadcasts to two games. But with the network’s broadcast of the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympics (and potentially the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup) a few months away, it is expected that more adjustments will be made in terms of accommodating the network’s sports coverage.

That said, TV5 should not stand pat and continue improving its lineup for the long term. It is a difficult and painful process, but when done right, the network’s fortunes should pay off.

Now what to do with AksyonTV? The question will be answered in another article.

AksyonTV Ends 24/7 Broadcasts

Once the first 24/7 Filipino language news channel on free TV, AksyonTV ceased its 24/7 airing on December 1.

What was once the first all-Filipino 24-hour news channel on free TV is now a distant memory. AksyonTV decided to sign off at midnight of November 30, a surprising move considering the network’s high expectations from its opening broadcast.

Not a few notice this, but since the programs from the defunct AKTV block on IBC joined AksyonTV, the network found themselves in trouble sustaining a 24/7 news broadcast. And coupled with the lack of revenue being generated alongside TV5, it became obvious that the higher operating costs were to blame for AksyonTV cutting short its on-air operations.

With the end of the 24/7 broadcast, AksyonTV had to say goodbye to re-runs of some of their programs, as well as Radyo5 simulcasts such as ‘Morning Calls’ and ‘Todo Bigay’. Instead they begin their broadcasts on weekdays with a simulcast of TV5’s ‘Good Morning Club‘, before ending it with AksyonTV originals. Then on weekends, they both start and end their broadcasts with the AksyonTV originals.

Even before ceasing the 24/7 broadcasts, some of the programs aired on AksyonTV became victims of the entry of AKTV refugees. The simulcasts of TV5’s T3: Reload and Aksyon ended before the PBA Governors’ Cup, while original programs such as ‘CNN Konek‘ ended before the start of the NCAA season.

AksyonTV’s decision to end its 24/7 broadcast leaves the ABS-CBN News Channel and the Solar News Channel as the only active 24/7 news networks in the country. And considering AksyonTV’s viewership being aimed at the ‘masa’ market, it may be the wise move to do. Now the big question is, what’s next for the suddenly beleaguered news network of Manny V. Pangilinan?

In 100 Words: Setting Aside Rivalry for Charity

This past weekend, the three major broadcast networks in ABS-CBN, GMA and TV5, set aside their brewing network wars for charity. Through the use of a telethon, each network encouraged viewers to donate food, clothing, water and sums of money to help the victims of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda).

During each telethon the networks sacrificed their own programming to give way to donations and pledges for the needy. While ABS-CBN and GMA aired their telethons in the afternoon, TV5 opted to open their telethon during ‘The Mega and the Songwriter’, and the following morning on ‘Good Morning Club‘, to avoid conflict with their scheduled programs. Nevertheless, each network was able to raise money and relief goods for charity, which is what the telethon is all about.

TV5’s New Programs for October (Part II)

TV5 recently unveiled new weeknight programs to be aired starting tomorrow. In Part I, I discussed the news programs under the Karunungan, Balita at Opinyon block, along with changes on ‘Good Morning Club’. For Part II, I will discuss the programs under the ‘Everyday All the Way’ block.

At 4:30 p.m., ‘Face the People’ tries to solve personal problems and conflicts with the help of the audience. The program replaces ‘Face to Face‘ and will be hosted by Gelli de Belen and Tintin Bersola-Babao. After ‘T3: Reload‘ and ‘Aksyon‘, TV5 continues ‘Everyday All the Way’ with ‘Madam Chairman’, a dramatic comedy teleserye starring Sharon Cuneta as a barangay chairman/loving mother and wife struggling to cope up with both politics and family life.

Originally ‘The Gift’ was scheduled to debut tomorrow, but is rescheduled after the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals. Starring Ogie Alcasid and Joshen Bernardo, the teleserye tells the story of a musician who adopted an orphaned son of his lover. The game show ‘Let’s Ask Pilipinas’ is a local franchise of ‘Let’s Ask America‘, and host Aga Muhlach challenges homeviewers to win P500,000 by answering various question using only laptops, tablets or other mobile devices. The game show was supposed to air at 8:00 p.m., but due to the postponement of ‘The Gift’, it was moved to 7:00 p.m. bumping ‘Madam Chairman’ to the 7:30 p.m. slot.

TV5’s ‘Sine Ko Singko’ movies will continue to air at 8:30 p.m., but on Thursdays, it will give way to a pair of weekly miniseries. ‘Positive’ stars Martin Escudero as a call center agent infected by the HIV virus, and whose life will revolve around tracing the person who infected him. It will be followed by ‘For Love or Money’. The series, starring Derek Ramsay, Ritz Azul and Alice Dixson, will be a story about a decision-changing move involving both wealth and relationships.

In only two months TV5 has made a pair of game-changing moves that catered to a younger and more educative audience. Weekend Do It Better proved to be a hit, and now the Kapatid Network will try to do the same with the ‘Karunungan, Balita, Opinyon’ (KBO) block and the ‘Everyday All the Way’ block.

TV5’s New Programs for October (Part I)

Last month, TV5 brought in its first wave of new and returning programs as part of its restructuring process. These programs began to air on the weekend of September 14-15 on what became known as ‘Weekend Do It Better’. This October, TV5 will continue its restructuring with the introduction of new programs on the weeknight slot, with the hopes of attracting younger and more socially conscious viewers. For Part I, I will discuss News5‘s newest programs.

The new News5 programming block will be dubbed as ‘KBO’ (Karunungan, Balita, Opinyon), which will start airing on October 14 at 10:00 p.m.. On Mondays, Paolo Bediones will host ‘Demolition Job’, a program which he will challenge and refute some commonly accepted facts. On Tuesdays, Cheryl Cosim will host ‘Numero’, a program similar in scope with the former but with the use of statistics as proof. On Wednesdays, Lourd de Veyra will host ‘History’, a program which will feature history lessons as told by Lourd himself. On Thursdays, Atty. Teresa Licaros will host ‘Dayo’, a program which will tell stories about the plight of Overseas Filipino Workers. And on Fridays, Paolo Bediones returns to host ‘Astig’, a program featuring interesting sports stories.

The ‘KBO’ block will be followed by the late night news broadcast ‘Pilipinas News‘ with anchors Paolo Bediones, Cheri Mercado and Jove Francisco, and ‘Reaksyon’ with News5 head Luchi Cruz-Valdes.

One program that was axed to make way for these news programs happen to be the late night talk show ‘The Medyo Late Night Show with Jojo A.’. The program, through its various incarnations, has been airing on TV5 since 2009. However, with the anticipated programming shakeup, Jojo Alejar and his All the Way Band finally decided to bid goodbye to their loyal viewers last September 27, after a four-year run. Following the final airing of ‘Medyo Late Night’, AksyonTV original programs began to air on TV5 primarily to fill in programming hours, but will only been seen on an interim basis while the aforementioned ‘KBO’ block is being prepared for launch. As for ‘Medyo Late Night’, it remains to be seen whether it will be brought back sometime in the future.

Meanwhile, the morning news program ‘Good Morning Club‘ will also be revamped to include new hosts and segments. The new hosts will include Radyo5’s ‘Punto Asintado’ tandem of Erwin Tulfo and Martin Andanar, ‘Tropa Mo Ko Unli’ star Tuesday Vargas, and News5 anchor Twink Macaraig. The newly-reformatted ‘GMC’ will also be shortened to two hours as opposed to three on the other competing morning shows, and will be divided into segments in order to provide information to a specific audience, and not just to the general public.

These new program offerings of News5 are also expected to air on sister network AksyonTV, though it has not been confirmed at the moment. In the meantime, TV5’s new entertainment programs will be discussed in Part II.