What if Hero TV survived beyond 2018?

On January 31, 2018, ABS-CBN formally signed off one of its cable channels that paved a way to a generation, or an era, so to speak, that defined the current Japanese pop-culture landscape that started in 2005.

We are talking about Hero TV, whose closure seemingly surprised everyone since it was first reported on Anime Pilipinas in 2017 (which, by the way, generated a lot of reactions., as one of our biggest stories before that year ended). People were simply sad, aghast, and disappointed on why ABS-CBN had decided to pull the plug on one of its youngest (in terms of its audience size and reach) channels in its bouquet.

I even had to eulogize the channel in a very personal Op-ed on Anime Pilipinas, to which I wrote that the corporate bozos at ABS-CBN was wrong to end the channel, and instead used the combined might of Hero and iWant (now iWantTFC) to leverage animation acquisitions.

But alas, Hero TV’s closure was just one of the things that ABS-CBN had to face in the next few years.

We all know what happened after Hero TV signed off at 12:04 AM of February 1, it was inactive for a few weeks, then later it announced that Hero would live on, as an online and digital portal for anything about anime and pop culture (but only on its social media page, not even creating a website, for Christ’s sake). A few weeks after that, it surprised everyone when it was announced that a Hero-branded anime block will air on ABS-CBN’s general entertainment channel, Jeepney TV, airing for at least two hours every weekend, until the arrangement ended a few months later. 

So yes, after that short but not-so-sweet run on Jeepney TV, Hero’s “digital transformation” stopped at its tracks. It just became a Facebook placeholder, and sharing stories about pop culture or just anything in between from the ABS-CBN News website or ANCX, the lifestyle vertical of ANC. 

I felt extremely disappointed at how ABS-CBN mishandled the “Hero” brand ever since its linear channel was axed in 2018, more so that I had expected so much about this “digital transformation” of the channel ever since the appointment of broadcast journalist Ces Orena-Drilon as the new Lifestyle Ecosystem content acquisition head. She could have moved Hero into a more “journalistic” future with a website, a competent editorial team, and varied content, like a version of Anime News Network or Anime Pilipinas, but one funded and managed by ABS-CBN. 

She could’ve also negotiated anime rights in behalf of iWant, using her leverage as the content acquisition head, and worked in tandem with the guys at the 10th floor aka the guys of ABS-CBN Program Acquisitions. They could have renegotiated better deals with Hero’s anime programming and aired it on iWant! 

But because she prioritized ANCX and Metro.style first, Hero’s transformation as a digital brand never happened, until that fateful day in 2020., when Congress decided not to give a franchise to ABS-CBN’s free to air business, causing the network to lose a significant portion of its income (which mainly came from free TV advertising revenue), and also caused the layoff of more than half of its workforce. 

So, yes, ABS-CBN, now being a lean mean content creation company, had to use different outlets to show its programming assets, which I have already extensively discussed in my previous blog. 

And what happened to Hero during those tumultuous months? Nothing. 

While all of ABS-CBN’s platforms on social media, including Yey!, changed to a more unified look in support of a possible franchise renewal, Hero did not even bother to change its profile pictures. remaining in its profile picture and cover since it was last changed in April.

So yes, among all of ABS-CBN’s platforms, Hero’s Facebook page stood out, because it seems that it has been forgotten by the team that was supposed to handle the page: ABS-CBN Lifestyle and Creative Programs, Inc. 

In essence, Hero’s socials paint a dark picture beneath the problems its parent network had faced: It has became relegated in the network’s annals of failed ventures: never to be touched, never to be brought up.

Missed Opportunity 

So, I now posit this question, What if Hero TV survived beyond January 31, 2018? What if the powers that be at ABS-CBN allowed Hero to live, and continued support on the channel? What if ABS did not get cold feet and thought “let’s continue Hero TV?” What if in the happenstance Hero TV could have survived even the ABS-CBN terrestrial shutdown? 

Well, in the near term, Drilon could’ve improved Hero TV’s local shows. She could have created a more “newsier” magazine show for Hero TV, and allow people who are journalists but are at the same time anime fans to produce the show and do compelling segments that, yes, won’t be the same caliber as her PiPOL, but you get the drift. 

ABS-CBN could have also ushered Hero in the high-definition age, maybe opening a HD feed of its channel to cater for the increasing content that is available in HD, as well as its multiple anime movies that if not for Hero’s closedown, could have aired in its Theatrixx block. And as I have said earlier, maybe Hero could have used iWantTFC as its OTT outlet, where it could place its anime shows for catch up to those without cable. 

And the biggest, if not the most important thing Hero should have done, especially with the shutdown of its parent network’s FTA franchise, It could have been used as an outlet by Yey to air those anime shows that was supposed to air before its digital TV signal was switched off. Yes, that includes Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, which was the unwilling victim of the loss of its FTA digital signal after Yey, alongside other digital channels, were forced off air due to a technicality. 

The anime has not been seen a year after its first episode was seen on Yey, and it seems ABS-CBN is not keen to give it a lease on life either on Kapamilya Channel, or even its blocktime partners, A2Z Channel 11 and TV5, ergo allowing the anime’s franchise life to just expire, without even it being given a lease on life on other plaforms. 

And, of course, my biggest lament ever, was Hero could’ve taken the chance to have its stuff aired in a much more wider audience through carriage deals with G-Sat and Cignal TV. Hell, maybe Cignal TV would’ve loved Hero TV in its platform, having an Filipino-dubbed anime channel was one of my dreams for Cignal TV, dating back to the days that TV5 still aired anime under the prized TV5 AniMEGA block. 

If Hero TV was still alive and it was given the space on Cignal TV, I bet, TV5 could’ve kick themselves in the balls and think that killing anime on their network was not the most prudent and the smartest (pun unintended) idea that could have come from the Pangilinan-owned network. 

Weakest of the Herd

Ah, Hero, you could have had a wonderful and colorful life if your corporate overlords just thought of extending you past 2018 and lived beyond the shutdown of the FTA franchise. You could have served many anime fans and even allowed them to enjoy the best Filipino-dubbed anime series even during the lockdown. You could have supported local virtual events, you could have aired more new titles, and most of all, you could have used your parent’s wide reach to effectively promote your titles. 

But, yeah, I guess because you were the weakest of the herd, you were the easiest to cull from among the assets the network had to pare down two years before its FTA franchise expired, and I guess, you could have also been one of those channels to be axed under a cost-cutting move by ABS-CBN. 

Sayang, maybe at least Hero being axed in 2018 is a much more tolerable thing to bear than the network being part of the casualty of the shutdown.

But all of these scenarios of Hero TV living beyond 2018 could have come true and could have made you successful even without ABS-CBN having an FTA franchise. 

But alas, it is just a fading memory, and will remain that way forever.  A sad note, considering that by the time I wrote this, it was 75 years since Jim Lindenberg created Bolinao Electronics Corporation, the seed that brought ABS-CBN. 

This post is dedicated in memory to the creator, developer, and the so-called “father” of Hero TV, its former channel manager, Eric Ang Go, who passed away in August. 

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/FSD