Television Network - Philippines

Philippines

In the Philippines, in practice, the terms network, station and channel are used interchangeably as programming line-ups are mostly centrally planned from the networks' main offices, and since provincial/regional stations usually just relay the broadcast from their parent company network's flagship station (usually based in the Mega Manila area). Hence VHF networks are sometimes informally referred to by the channel number they are seen on terrestrial TV in the Mega Manila area (e.g. Channel 2 or Dos for ABS-CBN, Channel 5 or Singko for TV5, and Channel 7 or Siyete for GMA Network) while some networks have the channel numbers in their name (e.g. TV5, Studio 23 and Net 25 which are seen on channels 23 and 25 respectively).

Unlike the US where networks get programmes from various production houses, the two largest networks in the Philippines produce all their prime time programmes except for Asianovelas. Other networks adopt block-time programming whose programming arrangements are similar to the relationship between a US network and station. And also Philippines has network wars in which the fans of the 2 major networks defend their favorite channel, or when the 2 major networks produce similar and rival programming, and example of this, is when an ABS-CBN fan tells an insult on GMA (usually being called cheap), and a GMA fan would answer and make another insult (usually the answer is that ABS-CBN is mayabang, arrogant in English), and an exchange of insults would occur, usually on social networking sites, especially Facebook. In terms of programming, for example, after the launch of Showtime, GMA launched Diz Iz It!, but was cancelled due to the former's popularity, and the latter was called a copycat and cheap. But the real definition of the network wars is that the 3 networks battle for ratings supremacy.