Thoughts on Telebisyon ng Bayan

Earlier this month, People’s Television/Telebisyong ng Bayan (PTV), Philippines’ state television, launched a new image in an attempt to reach out to more Filipinos. Aside from launching its new logo, they launched new programs and renovated their newscasts; the decade-old “Teledyaryo” brand was scrapped, maybe for good. In its place:

13:00 (1:00 PM) News@1 (lunchtime bulletin in Tagalog)

18:00 (6:00 PM) News@6 (early-evening bulletin in Tagalog)

21:15 (9:15 PM) Newslife (English-language bulletin)

Based on my observation, all of their newscasts have THREE main anchors, instead of TWO regular anchors and a SPORTS anchor, as most newscasts in the rest of the world. I wondered, why not put weekday morning bulletin (News@5:30, something like that) and weekend editions of News@1 and News@6?

Aside from the new newscasts and a new breakfast program (Metro One), there’s no other new programming; the same old public affairs programs, documentaries and TV shopping stuff.

In my opinion, PTV/TngB have a great potential to develop more as an effective alternative to the “telebasura” that plaguing Philippine TV landscape as a whole. However, since PTV is STATE-OWNED, they are victims of mismanagement since the time of Marcos. As Butch Francisco said once in his article, PTV is a “sleeping giant”.

PTV needed a second channel for cultural and intellectual programming. Why not? Oh, most public broadcasters had two  or three channels. And PTV must improve its TV drama department, to provide high-quality Filipino dramas to the screen.

And PTV must strive hard to be an independent, plural and objective PUBLIC BROADCASTER, free from government intervention.

Oh, and I forgot, PTV should promote the RIGHT USAGE of the Tagalog language, as most PUBLIC BROADCASTERS SHOULD DO. Add it with provincial public broadcasters, and voila!