Shop TV Now on GMA

GMA enters the world of TV shopping when it joined forces with Solar Entertainment’s Shop TV. (Logo courtesy of Shop TV, Solar Entertainment)

GMA Network is now joining the TV shopping bandwagon.

Last night marked GMA’s first foray into the TV shopping genre, when it joined forces with the Solar Entertainment-owned Shop TV. This brings the total number of free TV stations with at least one TV shopping program to ten, the list of which are as follows (parenthesis indicate the TV shopping programs the channel currently airs):

• ABS-CBN (O Shopping)
• PTV-4 (TV Shop, EZ Shop, Shop Japan)
• TV5 (Shop Japan)
• GMA (Shop TV)
• IBC-13 (TV Shop, EZ Shop)
• ETC/SBN-21 (Shop TV)
• Net 25 (EZ Shop)
• 2nd Avenue/RJTV-29 (Shop TV)
• BEAM-31 (O Shopping, Shop Japan, TV Shop)
• AksyonTV (Shop Japan)

Shop TV features products that are advertised on the Home Shopping Network in the United States. The network airs as a standalone cable channel on SkyCable, Cignal and various other outlets, while also acting as a program block on all of its Solar Entertainment sister channels, save for CT.

With the new collaboration, GMA now hopes to compete against its fellow Big Three networks and their TV shopping affiliates. The alliance should also attract a more sizable audience for Shop TV, who look to use GMA as a tool to further promote and advertise its products.

The Shop TV on GMA block currently airs every weekday from 12:30 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.

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IBC-13: Repeat Offenders of the MTRCB Ratings System

IBC-13’s disregard of the MTRCB’s current ratings guidelines only adds to the network’s ongoing misery. (Logo courtesy of the Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation)

The Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (IBC-13), already dubbed as the ‘sick network’, has another problem to deal with.

The said network has become infamous for their inability to completely implement the current television ratings system that the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) mandated in 2011. While all other networks have taken advantage of the new approach, IBC-13 has not taken the MTRCB’s ruling seriously.

As of today, September 1, the following current IBC-13 programs have not adopted the MTRCB ratings system:

• The Gospel of the Kingdom (of Sonshine Media Networks International)
• Cooltura
• Tipong Pinoy
• Retro TV
• Tagamend
• Home Shopping Network (9TV’s airing of HSN is currently rated PG)
• EZ Shop

Recently, IBC-13’s rebroadcasts of Ninoy Aquino documentaries also failed to follow the current MTRCB ratings system, when in fact they should have implemented it considering the sensitive subject matter of these documentaries.

Making it worse is the fact that the MTRCB has not reacted in any kind to IBC-13’s defiance of their ratings system. Rather than giving the network numerous warnings with regards to their guidelines, they simply stayed quiet.

It is always the duty of the MTRCB to strictly enforce these classification ratings. All networks must take this current ruling seriously in order to provide a more responsible viewing experience.

But in the case of IBC-13, it is clear that they are not enacting some sort of responsibility to their so-called ‘viewers’ , if there is any, simply because their programming is mediocre.

IBC-13’s blatant disregard of the MTRCB television ratings only adds to the network’s recent reputation as an unreliable, incompetent and disorganized broadcast group. While the addition of the Asian Television Content Corporation (ATC) as a blocktimer saved IBC-13 from further embarrassment, it is still not enough to make the network relevant to viewers.

In the end, more problems than solutions await the embattled management of IBC-13. And once the MTRCB finally decides to act on this matter, things will only get worse for the staff inside Capitol Hills, Diliman.