At the TVJ (Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto, Joey De Leon) and TV5’s Media Day last June 20, most of the questions surrounding the partnership for the trio’s future show were answered.
Many issues were discussed at the said conference including TVJ’s relationship with TAPE Inc., their partnership with TV5 and MediaQuest, the trademark issues for their new show, and the newly-established TVJ Productions Inc.
One of the topics discussed was the trending issue on social media regarding TV5 and ‘It’s Showtime.’ Prior to the shakeup, ‘It’s Showtime’ was the show occupying the noontime slot of TV5 until the channel announced housing TVJ while ‘It’s Showtime’ revealed its transfer to GTV, GMA Network’s sister channel.
According to Manny V. Pangilinan or MVP, the chairman of TV5, the said changes were purely a business decision.
“Sure, we have had to make a tough choice between Showtime and this particular production item. And it was just a purely business decision that we arrived at,” MVP stated.
He also mentioned It’s Showtime’s arrangement with the channel which expires on June 30.
“The format is different, it was a block time arrangement with them and it has an expiry date of June 30,”he said.
He further mentioned that the channel did its responsibility per its agreement with It’s Showtime.
“We are proud of what we have done for them. And you know, we continue to have arrangements with them in terms of their content,” the TV5 chairman added.
MVP also remarked, “I have not forsaken, again, our duty to them, what was done to them. We felt that we have to provide them a platform.”
The TV5 chairman assures that they are inclusive in the programs they house and guarantee those who are deserving of the platform to be given one on their channel.
“So we are an inclusive group, hindi kami namimili. Kung sino ang deserving ng ano, nararapat na ipakita sa aming plataporma, whether it is Cignal TV, free-to-air, UHF, VHF, and even the mobile platforms of the group and our home broadband,” he added.
MVP further remarked, “We will do that. We will provide our content providers all the platforms that the group possess, whether now or in the future.”
Despite It’s Showtime’s transfer, TV5 channel continues to house many ABS-CBN series on their time blocks.
TVJ also joined in to clear up the issue regarding It’s Showtime being bumped off.
Tito Sotto claimed that the show was never ‘bumped off’ because their deal with TV5 was set to expire at the end of June.
“I don’t think the word (or) the phrase ‘bump off’ should be used. Hindi naman sila bumped off eh, natapos ang kontrata nila. So in fairness to TV5, walang naba-bump off, itatapos ang kontrata,” Sotto said.
On giving TVJ the noontime slot of TV5, Jane Basas, CEO of MediaQuest and CignalTV, claimed that the deals with It’s Showtime and the TVJ show are different. She claimed that It’s Showtime’s time slot is only due to an arrangement with the channel, while the TVJ show is co-owned by TV5, making it their own production.
“This time around, we are co-owners, co-investors in TVJ productions so ‘yung pong title ng kung ano man pong title ng bagong show namin, mas invested kame kase produkto na namin, diba? So it just really makes sense from a business standpoint to put it in the timeslot that is best for it,” Basas stated.
The channel even offered a contract renewal with It’s Showtime on a different time slot; however, the noontime show rejected the offer and decided to transfer to GTV.
“Yes, we did offer an alternative timeslot and in our humble opinion, that timeslot, which is the 4:30 to 6:30 timeslot is best for it because it does have a younger viewership, eh. Bata ang mga nanonood ng Showtime. But sabi nga ni Boss MVP ‘noh, ultimately, it is their decision,” Basas added.
She futher added that they will continue to support It’s Showtime because of their relationship with ABS-CBN being the distributor of Kapamilya Channel.
Moreover, TV5 Chief Executive Officer Guido Zaballero also remarked that they respect the noontime show’s decision in transferring to GTV.
TVJ’s new show will soon air on TV5, replacing It’s Showtime on the noontime slot starting July 1 while GTV will also start broadcasting It’s Showtime on the same day.
