ABS-CBN Integrated News and Current Affairs Head Ging Reyes admitted that the Filipino audiences are “over entertained and underinformed.”
During the online forum “Reality Check: State of Journalism in the Philippines” held on Friday, October 23, Reyes confessed that the media including ABS-CBN has fed Filipino viewers too much entertainment rather than news and information.
Although it may be an unpopular observation, Reyes said she believed that people lacked more and useful information from all media sources which she said need to change.
“Media fed our audience too much entertainment. We’re guilty of that. This may not be a popular observation to some of my colleagues, I do believe our audience is over entertained, underinformed. And that is the thing we need to change,” Reyes said.
ABS-CBN has been known for leading Philippine television in terms of entertainment.
From quality teleseryes, to world-class variety shows and phenomenal reality talent search and game shows, ABS-CBN has been the go-to station of the Filipino viewers in terms of entertainment programs.
This, however, made people poorly informed about the socio-political issues in our country. That is why many people easily fall for fake news on social media.
Reyes also mention TV Patrol, the Kapamilya network’s flagship new program which focuses most of its contents to crime, national, and entertainment stories.
And with the ABS-CBN shutdown, their news department needed to discontinue other news and current affairs programs. The former 24/7 ABS-CBN News Channel or ANC which operate on cable also had to compress their programming to sign off at 10 pm as part of the network’s cost-cutting efforts.
“We still operate news channels but we’ve had to compress our programming. We used to be 24/7, now we sign off at 10 pm, as part of cost-cutting,” Reyes added.
ABS-CBN has been forced to go off air on May 5 following the expiration of their franchise and the NTC cease and desist order.
On July 10, a much harder blow was experienced by the Kapamilya network when 70 congressmen voted to reject their franchise application.
Currently, TV Patrol only airs on the cable at Kapamilya Channel and on ABS-CBN digital platforms Kapamilya Online Live on YouTube and Facebook.
Meanwhile, several Kapamilya entertainment shows are now back on free TV A2Z Channel 11 via ABS-CBN’s block time agreement with Zoe Broadcasting Network.
