Television

television

In 1950, engineering students from the University of Santo Tomas were conducting experiments on a form of local television (Del Mundo, Jr., 1986). However, it was in 1953 that commercial television was introduced to the Philippines, only around twelve years after the first commercial station started broadcasting in the United States (Panlasigui, 1967). Given the stress placed on entertainment in modern-day television programming, it comes as a surprise to learn that the first Philippine station, DZAQ-TV Channel 3 (Manila), was established not to provide a staple of detective shows and comedies, but to serve as a tool in a political campaign. Its founder, Judge Antonio Quirino, was the brother of President Elpidio Quirino, and he used the station to improve the President's chances of reelection that year. Placing television sets in public places-church plazas, hotels, restaurants, hospitals-Quirino advocated broadcast film of the President in the attempt to endear him to his constituents. The strategy was singularly unsuccessful as Quirino was steamrolled by Ramon Magsaysay (Del Mundo, Jr., 1986).

Following the presidential campaign, Judge Quirino changed tack and employed the station-now called ABS (Alto Broadcasting System)-to supply entertainment and information to the public (Ibid.). Being the only television station in Manila, Channel 3 soaked up the available television advertising expenditure until 1962, when it was joined on the scene by Channels 7, 5 and 11 (Panlasigui, 1967). In 1957 Judge Quirino sold his Alto Broadcasting System to the Lopez family, the owners of the Chronicle Broadcasting Network (CBN). The merger of the two networks led to the formation of ABS-CBN, which went on to become the leading network in the Philippines (Del Mundo, Jr., 1986, p. 75).

Another important development during the 1950s was the setting up of the Clark Armed Forces Television Station at Clark Air Base, Pampanga in 1955. The first American military television station in Southeast Asia, it catered to the residents of the base, offering them education, information and entertainment (Ibid.).

In their early years, television sets were a rarity and hence a status symbol. For instance, in 1955, there were only around 6,000 television sets in the Philippines, according to the UNESCO Statistical Yearbook (Ibid.). This situation lasted into the early 1960s. C. G. Panlasigui has described how this paucity of sets hindered the development of the country's television industry. It discouraged advertisers from exploiting the new medium; bereft of income, television stations could only offer a few programs that were "limited to prime evening hours;" this, in turn, resulted in a low set count (Panlasigui, 1967, p. 123).

The 1960s saw major developments in the television industry. One was the introduction of color broadcasting on Channel 3 in 1966 (Del Mundo, Jr., 1986). The innovation was driven by businessmen who thought it would promote the consumption of their products. Another development was the trend towards the consolidation of media monopolies owned by tycoons and financiers. Hence, Channel 13 was affiliated with the radio station DZHP and the Philippines Herald; Channel 5 was associated with the Manila Times and the radio stations DZMT, DZWS and DZTM; and Channels 3 and 9 were linked with the Manila Chronicle and radio stations DZQL, DZXL, DZAQ and DZBC (Panlasigui, 1967). Their owners used these media combines to defend themselves against the assaults of their rivals and to promote their interests,