ABS-CBN Corporation is a Philippine media company based in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. It is the largest entertainment television and film production, program syndication provider, film distributor and media company in the Philippines. It is a subsidiary of Lopez Holdings Corporation, which is owned by the López family. ABS-CBN was formed by the merger of Alto Broadcasting System (ABS) and Chronicle Broadcasting Network (CBN). Aside from "Kapamilya" as the company's and namesake television network's metonym, it is also metonymically called "Ignacia" due to the location of its headquarters ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center along Mother Ignacia Street in Quezon City.
ABS was founded in 1946 by American electronics engineer James Lindenberg as Bolinao Electronics Corporation (BEC). In 1952, BEC was renamed Alto Broadcasting System (ABS) with its corporate name, Alto Sales Corporation after Judge Antonio Quirino, brother of President Elpidio Quirino, purchased the company and later launched the first TV station in the country, DZAQ-TV on October 23, 1953. The company that would later be merged with ABS to form ABS-CBN was founded in 1956 as Chronicle Broadcasting Network, Inc. (CBN) by Eugenio Lopez Sr. and his brother Fernando Lopez, who was the sitting Vice President of the Philippines. A year later, the Lopezes acquired ABS. The ABS-CBN brand was first used on television in 1961.
The company became known as ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation (or simply as ABS-CBN Broadcasting) from February 1, 1967 to September 23, 1972 and again since its relaunch on September 14, 1986. On August 21, 2007, the company began to use the ABS-CBN Corporation name to signify its diversification where both names are now alternatively used since then. The common shares of ABS-CBN were first traded on the Philippine Stock Exchange in July 1992 under the ticker symbol ABS.
Due to being denied of another 25-year free-to-air broadcasting franchise by the Philippine Congress, the company now mainly focuses on working as a content company, which includes production and distribution of television programs, films and other entertainment material.
History
The company was founded on June 13, 1946, an American electronics engineer who went into radio equipment assembly and radio broadcasting. In 1949, Lindenberg shifted Bolinao to radio broadcasting with DZBC and masterminded the introduction of television to the country in 1953.
thumb|left|National historical marker installed in 2003 at ABS-CBN's broadcast center in Quezon City commemorating the very first television broadcast by ABS
In 1951, Lindenberg partnered with Antonio Quirino, brother of then-Philippine President Elpidio Quirino, in order to try their hand at television broadcasting. In 1952, BEC was renamed as Alto Broadcasting System or ABS (with Alto Sales Corporation as its corporate name). "Alto" was a contraction of Quirino's and his wife's first names, Tony and Aleli, and is Spanish for "tall". Though they had little money and resources, ABS was able to put up its TV tower by July 1953 and import some 300 television sets. The initial test broadcasts began in September of the same year. The first full-blown broadcast was on October 23, 1953, of a party in Tony Quirino's humble abode. The television station was known as DZAQ-TV.
CBN was founded on September 24, 1956, by Eugenio Lopez Sr. and the then-Philippine Vice President Fernando Lopez. The network initially focused only on radio broadcasting. It launched its very own TV station, DZXL-TV 9, on April 19 (or July), 1958.
In 1958, the network's new headquarters at Dewey Boulevard was inaugurated, and all radio and television operations were consolidated into its two buildings – the radio stations at the Chronicle Building at Aduana Street, Intramuros, Manila and the TV operations at the brand new Dewey Boulevard building in Pasay, Rizal.
ABS-CBN president Geny López was arrested in November 1972, imprisoned and held without trial for five years until he and his cellmate Sergio Osmeña III launched a daring jailbreak on October 1, 1977. They fled into exile in the United States together with their families.
ABS-CBN general manager Jake Almeda Lopez was also jailed for a year for his protest activities. After his daring and successful escape from Fort Bonifacio, he joined López in exile in the United States and kept himself busy protesting the Marcos Sr. dictatorship from abroad. He was a key figure in the protest over the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.
The company was replaced by taken over by Banahaw Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on November 4, 1973, with DZAQ-TV Channel 2 changed to its new call sign (DWWX-TV), logo, slogan and a theme song (composed by Jose Mari Chan entitled "Big Beautiful Country") under Roberto Benedicto, a crony of Ferdinand Marcos, then-Philippines ambassador to Japan, and sugar plantation owner, who used the Broadcasting Center at Bohol Avenue, then renamed "Broadcast Plaza", as the home of Government Television/Maharlika Broadcasting System (GTV/MBS, originally from Intramuros) and Kanlaon Broadcasting System/Radio Philippines Network (KBS/RPN, after the studio in Pasay was destroyed by fire on June 6, 1973).
On May 5, 2020, ABS-CBN's free-to-air operations, including television, radio, and affiliate stations, were axed once again after the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued a cease-and-desist order following its 25-year legislative franchise granted on March 30, 1995 was lapsed a day before. On July 10, 2020, due to multiple controversies while tackling its franchise renewal, the Congress of the Philippines, through House Committee on Legislative Franchises, voted 70-11 to deny their franchise application, leading ABS-CBN officially end their broadcasting era. Meanwhile, the network continues to distribute their content and syndicating programs through partner networks and online platforms.
Assets, divisions, and subsidiaries
ABS-CBN Corporation owns major media and entertainment companies in the Philippines, and offers services and products such as radio broadcast, satellite and cable television broadcast, broadcast syndication, telecommunications, publishing, content production and program and film distributor, television production, film production, new media and digital platforms, talent agencies, pay TV and broadband internet provider, consumer sales and merchandise, music label and recording, and theater.
The company owns and operates general entertainment broadcaster Kapamilya Channel and English-language news service ABS-CBN News Channel under ABS-CBN, AM radio station DZMM and Filipino-language cable and online news channel DZMM TeleRadyo (through a joint venture with Prime Media Holdings), and digital radio platform MOR Entertainment, and also the ultimate beneficial owner, producer, distributor, provider and responsible to shows, movies including restored ones, franchises acquired, music, idents, and ABS-CBN-related websites and social media accounts produced by its divisions, subsidiaries and production companies and public relations and press releases relating to them, and physical company properties such as ID laces as such using the media company name or its trade names on them aside from official documents and reports.
The Kapamilya Channel, in particular, is the largest contributor to the company's revenue mainly from selling airtime to advertisers. The remaining revenue is generated from block-timing and other networks and platforms as well as from consumer sales, mainly from ABS-CBN Global Ltd. and ABS-CBN International, which distributes international television channels such as TFC HD, ANC Global, Cinema One Global, Cine Mo! Global, DZMM TeleRadyo Global and Myx Global and also from pay TV and broadband internet provider Sky Cable Corporation.
Other companies which operate under the ABS-CBN media company are motion picture companies under ABS-CBN Film Productions, such as Star Cinema, Cinema One Originals, Cine Bro and Black Sheep Productions, the entertainment division ABS-CBN Studios (Dreamscape Entertainment, Star Creatives, RCD Narratives, JRB Creative Production, RGE Drama Unit under RSB Scripted Format, and ABS-CBN Creative Communications Management), entertainment and film production Star Magic Studio (under Star Magic), and online ticketing and streaming site KTX.
It also operate music record labels under ABS-CBN Music, such as Star Music and its subsidiaries, Tarsier Records, and MYX Global. The companys's publishing assets include ABS-CBN Publishing and ABS-CBN Books, pay TV content provider and distributor Creative Programs, telecommunications company ABS-CBN Convergence (68% co-owned with Globe Telecom). Its talent agency Star Magic is composed of divisions such as Star Hunt, Polaris, and Rise Artists Studio.
The ABS-CBN media company's main entertainment and production division is called Star Creatives Group. The company's pay TV networks and channels include ANC, Cinema One, Cine Mo!, DZMM TeleRadyo, Jeepney TV, Kapamilya Channel, Knowledge Channel, Metro Channel, Myx.
In recent years, ABS-CBN has ventured and diversified into other businesses such as over-the-top platforms iWant, TFC IPTV and web-based channel Kapamilya Online Live. Both iWant TFC and Kapamilya Online Live are under ABS-CBN Digital Media, a new media and digital division under ABS-CBN which also handles news.ABS-CBN.com and ABS-CBN.com.
ABS-CBN is also the principal owner of the ABS-CBN Philharmonic Orchestra. It owns ABS-CBN Studios, Inc. which operates its production facilities nationwide, including the ABS-CBN Soundstage located in Bulacan, and the newly relaunched theater arm of ABS-CBN, Teatro Kapamilya.