Free - TV Owning Politico, Nightmare to Rivals

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

In case this free television in my province owned by the family of a politician - where some of them are entrenched in the national and provincial offices  - start to broadcast, this will be a media nightmare of their rivals who will be besieged by brickbats with regularity by its anchors as the May 2022 election comes near.

During the husting graced by former Speaker and ex- Senator Alan Peter Cayetano held recently at the city plaza of Dagupan I bumped into seasoned videographer and former SkyCable TV anchor Janice Hidalgo (who now hosts Radyo Pangasinan 95.3 FM ) who quipped to me: “Malapit na ang free T.V namin mag on the air”.

Free television, just like GMA-7 and TV-5, is where the members of the marginalized households living in the boondocks can watch any shows at their whims and caprices – as long as their electricity has not been cut off by the bill collector - that emanates from the limited channels.

 

STILL NO.1.Television remains the Filipinos' go-to media platform for consuming content despite growing internet usage in the country. In a 2016 polls conducted by media intelligence firm Kantar Media, 96.6 percent of Filipinos watch TV daily from 91.2 percent in 2014. Filipinos also spent longer time in front of their TV sets, devoting 3.7 hours by watching their favorite programs. (Photo Credit: CNN Philippines)

She whisked out her android phone and showed to me the state-of-the art video cameras with tripods and other gadgets similar to those I saw at the regional television stations of ABS-CBN and GMA-7 based in Dagupan City whenever the managements of these boob tube corporations asked me to give my analysis whenever boxing icon Manny Pacquiao geared to clash with other marquee pugs.

Sa mga ngayon lang nakabasa ng blog ko – opo, dati rin po akong nag bo-boxing analyst bukod sa raket kung political columnist na gaya nitong binabasa niyo. Kailangan lang talagang kumayod dahil krisis hahahaha!

A week ago I bumped into Radyo Pangasinan 95.3 FM Manager Joey “Joey Baby” dela Cruz and asked him when will be their TV start to broadcast in the garguantuan province.

“Ngayong June”

“Sino mga anchors ninyo?”

“Iyong mga dati sa ABS-CBN”.

Free TV, as a political tool, is potent. This is not comparable to the USA-TV owned by the family of former Dagupan City Mayor Belen T. Fernandez. Cable TV is sissy compares to free-TV. Subscription to the former is usually for the lower middle class up the hoity-toity. The great unwashed who are the majority in the Philippines - thanks to government negligence - settle for free TV by switching the few channels like GMA-7, TV-5, TV-13 Inter Continental Broadcasting Corporation, TV-35 Sonshine Media Network International, TV-39 Information Broadcast Unlimited that shows UNTV, TV-4 People’s Television Network, TV-40 Mediascape Inc.,or whatever channel their antenna connected boob tube can get in Pangasinan.

When Mayor Fernandez brought me, Philippine Star Correspondent Eva Visperas, a Japanese reporter, Environmentalist Nick Melecio, and lawyer  Gilbert T. Andres of the Manila based (Harry)  Roque & Butuyan Law Office in May 2016 to Sta.Cruz and Masinloc in Zambales and Infanta, Pangasinan for an ocular inspection about the plights of Filipino fishermen harassed by the Chinese Coast Guard in the West Philippines Seas and the environmental state of the coast of the towns because the Hizzoner, er, Herzonner, geared to prepare for her aide-mémoire on the United Nations in New York City as resource speaker on environment at the United Nations Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The folks who saw her in Zambales turned gaga and yelled to her “Mayor, Mayor Belen!”

“Kilala kayo hanggang dito Mayor!” a member of her entourage excitedly told her.

I told her that Dagupan City as the center of commerce in Region-1 and where these two giant TV stations controlling owners the Lopezes and Gozons have been giving her a lot of publicity through their news casts.

The two giant franchisees covered almost daily and significantly the social and political issues that shrouded the city.

Her popularity with the hoi polloi there was due to free TVs and had nothing to do with the family owned mammoth USA-TV cable system -who just installed for upgrade at our house a High Definition’s Digital Cable Receiver for hundred plus channels – probably because of competition with SkyCable or other cable channels in the province.

The P500 and P650 monthly subscription rates for the basic and premium packages of that cable are limited to the lower middle income class and above who are willing to pay those shows, in English of course, like those pang elite's  Comedy Central, Extreme, BBC Lifestye, F, and whatchamacallit. 

***

Let’s go back to the free television. I browsed online under the name’s List of Analog Television Stations in the Philippines by Wikipedia and saw that those who have franchise (it means granted by Congress) to emit shows in their respective provinces in Region-1 are GMA-7, TV-5, TV-13, TV-35, TV-39 (UNTV), TV-4, and TV-40.

There was an inactive franchise I saw too in Dagupan City called DWDJ-TV as call sign, TV-40 as number, and 10 kilo Watt as power.

I don’t know if this will be the free TV Janice and Joey Baby told me that they are going to piggy back or another franchise was approved by Congress to serve the 44 towns and 4 cities’ province.

With ABS CBN being canned, this new television network is an intelligent business venture as it will compete with GMA - 7 in chasing for advertisement's subscriptions those businessmen and politicians especially who will  ingratiate with the people in the next year’s poll.

TV ads, especially political, are expensive.

When Senatorial bet Joey de Venecia ran in the 2010 election, former Speaker Joe de Venecia told me that scion pays P200 to P300 thousand per 30  “seconder”  advertisement at either TV giant ABS-CBN or GMA-7.  If my memory serves me right, the son for the few weeks dash, in his race to be included in the Top 12 of either Social Weather Station or Pulse Asia polls, had been airing three to four ads a day to get the attention of the voters around the country.

Hmmm?  P250,000 multiplies by three times a day multiplies by 30 days equal a staggering of P22,5000, 000 a month!

As June nears, let’s wait how this new TV performs.

I’m curious how its news cast and commentary program undermine selected personalities in the next year’s poll.

Radio listenership is in decline as people go to Facebook to get their news and entertainment. I could vouch for that by looking at those broadcasters pathetic viewership on the social media founded by Mark Zuckerberg et alia in February 2004 at Cambridge Massachusetts, United States. But free TV? Damn, it is the silver bullet that many politicians crave to own and cut any chances of their opponents for brownie points till the masa, Manuel L. Quezon's favorite term, cast their ballots in a practice called Right of Suffrage.

Asked the Lopezes how they became King makers while their ABS CBN made raves and waves since the 1960s – until karma caught with their hubris through a House of Representatives’ choo-choo train. It was under the helm of Speaker Cayetano that rammed to smithereens its franchise’s renewal through the imprimatur from the Big Boss, who has an effeminate blabbermouth Spokesman, who lives near the Pasig River.

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(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)