Will TV5 offer something different (again)?

In its 11th year under the ownership of the MVP (Manny Velez Pangilinan) group of companies through PLDT investee MediaQuest Holdings, TV5 has upped the ante again in recalibrating itself as the new second force in television after the loss of ABS-CBN’s free-to-air license with a new slogan and a new positioning, called “Iba sa 5”.

The new station identity plug and jingle, which was premiered on May 20 after its primetime newscast Frontline Pilipinas, had an homey feel to it, showcasing the different shows and stars under the network banner, some of them they produced or owned, while others were from their blocktime “partner”, ABS-CBN. 

The catchy jingle was composed by Jeff Arcilla, one of the singers of the famous “Tell the World of His Love” jingle of World Youth Day 1995, and was conceptualized by its new ad agency, Grey Group Philippines. 

According to Dino Laurena, the recently-installed President of Media5 Marketing Corporation, the sales and marketing arm of the network (and yes, the same Dino Laurena from ABS-CBN Sports), the new positioning was in response to the network’s reinvigorated thrust in Entertainment, becoming, as he was quoted in a prepared statement by the network, a “a one-stop channel for all types of content—dramas, gameshows, talent shows, variety, movies, series, news, and sports,”

“Viewers can just tune in to TV5 and find all these there.” Laurena added. 

The new ID, which was produced and shot by fellow MediaQuest company UxS (UnitelxStraight Shooters) feature most of the shows and stars that are included in the network’s own programming grid, such as Maja Salvador, Maine Mendoza, Paolo Ballesteros, Randy Santiago, John Estrada, Rey Valera, and Herbert Bautista, to name a few. 

It also featured news personalities and reporters, such as Paolo Bediones, Marga Vargas, Cheryl Cosim, Gretchen Ho, Ed Lingao, Lourd De Veyra, Laila Chikadora Pangilinan, Maeanne Los Banos, MJ Marfori, Romel Lopez, Gerard dela Pena, Luchi Cruz Valdes and Raffy Tulfo, the icon of News5. 

And of course, shows from ABS-CBN also have a cameo appearance in the ID, top billed by actors like Coco Martin, Andrea Brillantes, Eula Valdes, and others, as well as the PBA and volleyball (and while its not yet announced officially, it will also air the 2020(+1) Tokyo Olympics as well as per ContentAsia) 

As Laurena succinctly puts it, TV5’s Station ID shows that their content is varied, from news, drama, comedy, sports, movies, everything. There is something for everybody as he puts it. 

“Iba-iba ang mapapanood mo dito. Iba-ibang viewers ang mag-e-enjoy manood dito. Iba-iba rin ang mga artista at mga content creators na makikita mo dito.” Laurena had said. 

What makes TV5 “iba” or different, Laurena says, is that anyone who is willing to work for the network is welcomed with open arms. 

My Take on This

When I heard that TV5 is re-positioning again with a brand-new Station ID to boot, all I thought again was, “holy s**t, here we go again”. 

I mean honestly, we have already heard so many repositioning moves from TV5 ever since it was acquired by MVP in 2009, as the so-called “final, significant piece” of his big dream to interconnect content and technology. (in the same vein AT&T thought about WarnerMedia, but look at where they are heading now). 

From “Para sa Iyo, Kapatid” to “Go5” and “Get it on 5“, TV5 has been repositioned for so many times in the same way its network chiefs are being replaced and its profit guidance being revised. 

It has lost billions of pesos in entertainment failures and poorly-made decisions on talent raiding that they forgot to learn the playbook from the late Bill Paley, who made CBS…well… CBS by raiding the top radio talent in the industry which was located in one place: NBC (not the MediaQuest NBC, but the US NBC) 

What the network also forgot was that they have alienated that very core audience of millennials who felt that TV5 was servicing that underserved audience when it was reprogrammed by the old owners, MPB Primedia, Inc in 2008. 

And that audience that they have alienated turned out to be the audience that had the most fiercely-loyal following: Anime fans.

Being “Different” should also involve anime programming

What Laurena quickly forgot about the mystique of TV5 is that its core audience was not the fan who loves to sing, or the sports fan, or the one who just wanted to watch Coco Martin after ABS-CBN went kaput on FTA. It was the millennials, the anime fans, the ones who made TV5, well, at the risk of repeating myself again, TV5.

It was when TV5 aired AniMEGA in 2008 when it became the talk of the town, not only because it was the only network that aired primetime anime content that no other networks tried to do, but it gave them anime titles that no other network dared to get. 

I mean, if not for TV5, would anime fans even get to hear about Shakugan no Shana? Yamato Nadeshiko? Lucky Star? Haruhi Suzumiya? Code Geass? Lucky Star? and even GUNDAM FUCKING DOUBLE-O. 

Yes, all of them were aired by TV5, before the MVP regime took control and Perci Intalan took over the primetime slot to make TV5 a virtual copycat of ABS and GMA, to utter failure. 

And it all went downhill from there.

If only TV5 stuck to its guns to continually program themselves with Anime, then we won’t have any problem after ABS-CBN pulled the plug on Hero TV in 2018. It will also create a captive and solid fanbase that other networks dreamed of getting. I mean, you can’t get a  much solid fanbase as those who had been weaned on TV5 AniMEGA since it first aired in 2008! 

And further, the TV5 AniMEGA franchise would have not been decimated into pieces, such as in the same way the network tried as hell with the partnership with Aniplus Asia in 2017 under the auspices of Chot Reyes. 

I tell you, what destroyed TV5 AniMEGA’s mystique is the fact that network executives tried to mess around the network so much with different formats and  iterations and reprogramming strategies that no one recognizes TV5 anymore. 

Until that fateful shutdown of ABS-CBN in May, followed by the rejection of its network franchise and the exodus of executives and talent, TV5 was just a fly in the wall in the Philippine TV landscape. We know that they were in the midst of putting themselves back in the entertainment game after pronouncements made by its former chief, Jane Jimenez Basas, whose acumen prompted the MVP brass to move her to Smart Communications, to be replaced by Robert Galang, whose family originally owned the franchise of Cignal TV before it was sold to the MVP group

With Galang moving forward the plans of Basas, plus the shutdown of ABS-CBN’s free to air frequencies, suddenly, TV5 was thrust into the limelight again, but this time as the home of the people who had been displaced. 

And yes, as expected, most of the new shows that had aired on TV5 starting September did not survive the full year, including “URL with Luchi”, “Rated Korina”, “Sunday ‘Kada” and “Sunday Noontime Live”, which was controversially replaced by… “ASAP Natin ‘To!” 

(Good thing for “Lunch Out Loud”, they are amazingly doing well for TV5 in the ultra-competitive noontime slot)

So, yes, how “different” is the new TV5 from the previous TV5, when its network executives are still yet undecided in programming the network and destroying what it has built over the past years, including Anime.

So, How to be “Iba”?  

If TV5 wants to act again “different” in the eyes of its viewers, then it should give varied choices. Not just the same old fare that they are trying to copy from the big networks. 

If TV5 wants to be different, then they should act different. Yes sure they are bringing back some “Novaliches mentality” in their programming with the return of tried and tested formats such as Sing Galing and Wow Mali, but they have to mine even deeper. They have a vault of intellectual property that is willing to be exploited and be brought back again for a newer audience. 

And also, for TV5 to be different. IT HAS TO BRING BACK ANIME IN ITS FOLD. 

Yes, it HAS to be said: TV5 was TV5 because of its anime shows, and it has to bring back that mystique, it has to bring back that hype. IT IS NOW TIME TO BRING BACK THE ANIME FRANCHISE BACK. 

And where to start, you may ask? 

Well, Start looking at your blocktime Partner, ABS-CBN. They have loads of anime that are unaired because of the shutdown: Cardcaptor Sakura, Boruto, My Hero Academia, and some others that are being stuck in their storage, possibly waiting for it to expire. 

Negotiate that deal already, TV5, and do what ABS-CBN did to its weekday primetime and Sunday shows. Wangle a blocktime agreement for its anime shows. 

And trust me, the new mantra of TV5, “Iba sa 5”, will make more sense. 

/FSD