So what’s new on TV?
Same shoddy goods
PJR Reports looked at the schedules of the three networks, and cross-checked these with published television guides and the schedules in the stations’ websites and social networking accounts for one week (Nov.8-14, 2010). It took note of the percentage allotted by each station to different program formats. Changes in programming schedule beyond this date were not included in the infograph provided. (See Matrix below.)
(click on the matrix to enlarge)
Newscasts account for a measly 7 to 9 percent of a day’s worth of network programs. Of the three networks monitored, ABS-CBN 2 allotted 9.25 percent of its total daily airtime for news, higher than that of TV5, which has three news programs (Balitaang Tapat, Aksyon and Aksyon JournalisMO) for a total 8.43 percent of total daily airtime, and GMA-7 with 7.59%. Both ABS-CBN and GMA7’s two-minute news bulletins, which they air throughout the day, were not included in the count.
(Breakdown of broadcasting minutes [by genre], ABS-CBN 2. Click to enlarge.)
Based on programming guides, of the shows aired at 6:30 p.m., Willing Willie runs from 30 minutes to an hour more than TV Patrol (1 hr. 30 mins.) 24 Oras (1 hour). The two-hour long variety program, which usually goes overtime, also competes with the other early primetime offerings of its rival networks.
ABS-CBN and GMA-7 fill their primetime lineup with teleseryes patterned after Latin American soap operas; and fantaseryes, series with fantasy elements (225 broadcast minutes in GMA, 220 in ABS-CBN). Often hugely followed and loaded with commercials, these shows usually run minutes behind schedule, often at the expense of the public affairs programs. Although both stations allot 45 minutes for public affairs as opposed to TV5’s 30, these shows run in the wee hours: at 11:30 p.m. over GMA7 and over ABS-CBN at 12:30 a.m.
(Breakdown of broadcasting minutes [by genre], GMA-7. Click to enlarge.)
TV5 top-rater Willing Willie, which would run 30 to 70 minutes overtime (it ran until 9:52 p.m. on Nov. 26), also pushes the station’s public affairs programs beyond their 11 p.m. schedule. And yet TV5 started with such promise when it moved its public affairs programs to the 10 p.m. slot from 11:00 p.m.
(Breakdown of broadcasting minutes [by genre], TV5. Click to enlarge.)
The total number of hours allotted for newscasts is as measly as the time allotted for public affairs: ABS-CBN allots 12 percent of its total broadcast time (460 out of 3, 695 broadcast minutes); TV5, 16 percent (720 out of 3, 620 minutes); and GMA-7, 20 percent (615 out of 3, 660). All the stations have re-runs of their public affairs programs, but these are aired at around 4:30 to 5:00 a.m.
The late night news programs also air late for people who may want to catch up with the day’s events. TV5’s Aksyon JournalisMO airs at 10:30 p.m. (at 11 when preceding shows are on overtime) while Saksi (Witness) of GMA-7 airs at 11:00 p.m., and Bandila, at 11:45 p.m.
Television content is as disappointing as when PJR Reports did the same monitor for its Nov.-Dec. 2009 issue (See “Peddling Shoddy Goods”, p. 6-7). There is a huge imbalance between empowering, or at least informational, and escapist programming.
Lessons
Sheila Coronel, formerly executive director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and currently executive director of the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism of New York’s Columbia University, once said of television content, “There are almost no programs on primetime that provide for values formation, much less empowerment.” In the end, the public suffers from the fact that television has become more escapist than thought-provoking, especially because their programs do not provide viewers with the “tools to navigate in the harsh and complex world.”
Television is a public and influential medium. The Pulse Asia and Nielsen surveys in February and October, respectively, could attest to its influence over viewers. Free TV makes access and reach almost absolutely possible. But it owes its reach and influence to the public; after all, the airwaves which allow the networks to broadcast are public property. Congressional franchises are granted on the condition that they will further public interest as much as their commercial interest.
As the broadcast media’s self-regulating body, the KBP may have to rethink its guidelines, especially with regards to the amount of time it mandates for news and information, and so as to prevent such attempts as TV5’s to subvert the news function.
The terms of Congressional franchises should also be clearer as far as the required public service programs are concerned, in terms of banning the practice of airing them when audiences are at their lowest numbers.
By John M. Antiquerra, Rupert Francis D. Mangilit, and Ruby Shaira F. Panela
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