But his latest move to give his bitter rival, the former media giant ABS-CBN a lifeline through his group’s Cignal TV has some of our Babblers asking: has Pangilinan gone soft?
You can NOW watch awesome Kapamilya shows on Cignal Ch. 22!
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Cignal just launched ABS-CBN’s Kapamilya Channel on Channel 22.
READ: LOOK: Zoe TV just got a sleek, modern makeover
The deal between Pangilinan and the Lopezes will enable ABS-CBN to claw back some of the audience it lost when its franchise expired five months ago.
READ: Back on free TV on Oct 10: Villanueva takes in ‘homeless’ Lopezes, rebrands Zoe TV to A2Z
After getting its application for renewal trashed in Congress, ABS-CBN has been slowly picking up the pieces to get back on its feet.
READ: Gabby Lopez eyes post-ABS-CBN franchise options, talks to Zoe TV
Nearly two weeks ago, ABS-CBN returned to free TV after the Lopezes finalized a deal with Brother Eddie Villanueva to air Kapamilya shows on his rebranded Zoe TV, A2Z Channel 11 (this is also available on Cignal).
A Babbler said the deal was pushed by Cignal TV president and CEO Robert P. Galang who saw it as an opportunity to boost Cignal’s sales, especially in time for the aggressive promotion of its prepaid satellite pay TV, SatLite. ABS-CBN will get access to two million-plus viewers while Cignal gets more subscribers.
A Babbler said several members of the MVP group were reportedly not on board with the deal because it ran counter to TV 5’s ambition to fill up the void left by ABS-CBN.
READ: When 2 become 11: Brother Eddie welcomes ‘TV Patrol’, ‘Ang Probinsyano’ on Zoe
The Babbler noted that TV5 was ABS-CBN’s first choice for a block time deal (it has a better signal than Zoe TV) but no deal was reached.
READ: TV ad spending gets boost from ABS-CBN’s return to fee TV
Most TV 5 executives believed that after spending billions in a futile bid to beat ABS-CBN over the last decade, this was the best opportunity for the network to prove its mettle and gain market share.
This is the reason why TV 5 recently beefed up its programming and took in some of ABS-CBN pillars, broadcasters Ted Failon and Korina Sanchez.
According to the Babbler, a younger Pangilinan would have gone for the knockout punch when his enemy was on the ropes.
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