Marilyn cortes had been working the whole night. By the time she went home on a steamy Friday morning in may 1996, her Austrian husband apparently show their two young daughters dead. Then he turned the gun on himself.
By late afternoon, the country�s two major networks were there to cover the aftermath, live. But abs-cbn got first shot, and cortes was soon answering questions about her role in the tragedy. After all, her husband�s suicide note, left on a computer printout, hinted of marital problems.
In tears she answered the questions put to her in rapid succession by the anchors of channel 2�s Hoy! Gising! She tried to beg off, but the interview was stretched then carried over to the succeeding show, tv patrol.
Critics would later denounce the station�s anchors for harassing cortes and invading her privacy, saying they interrogated her as though she were a suspect, ad not the grieving widow who had just lost her husband and children. They also hit the network for sacrificing decency and fairness in the name of revenues and ratings.
But the incident was only the latest manifestation f the ranging network war between abs-cbn and its chief rival, gma7.
By monopolizing cortes� time and asking her all possible questions, Hoy! Gising! Had scored and deprived its rival, GMA�s news program saksi, the chance to air cortes� story.
The public has watched with fascination, sometimes exasperation, as both channels 2 and 7 tried to outdo each other in the battle for viewership. At the forefront are the network�s respective news and public affairs departments. Considered the flagship division in any network, this is where the viewers get a good gauge of a station�s manpower and technical capabilities.
Before 1986, gma was the country�s most popular network. Its news program had the televiewers, having earned a reputation for daring to speak out at a time when most of the media were shackled by the marcos dictatorship. There was talk, however, that the network was partly owned by presidential daughter imee marcos, who allowed the network some leeway to give the country a semblance of a free press.
The rise of cory aquino to the presidency in 1986 signaled the return of the lopez family and the resurrection of its broadcast empire. The lopezes pirated some gma personnel and revived abs-cbn channel 2.
Abs-cbn�s news program, tv patrol, was soon winning over gma�s viewers with its hard-hitting style and commentary. It dared to venture into stories the media would otherwise not touch. But tv patrol is also responsible for whetting the viewers� appetite for blood and gore, introducing what was later labeled �tabloid journalism on television.�
Abs-cbn has since replaced gma as the country�s number one network. Tv patrol and its English-language counterpart, the worl tonight, continue to reign over all other news programs. And despite the competition offered by gma, abs-cbn�s hold the viewership remains firm. But the war between the two stations continue to rage. During the papal visit to manila in1995, for instance, each accused the other of using underhanded tactics to cover the event. The battle has even landed to courts recently, after erstwhile abs-cbn talents mel tiangco and jay sonza signed up with gma.
Yet abs-cbn insiders dismiss the existence of a network war. �what war?� asks an abs-cbn executive who declines to be named. �the competition is one-sided. Gma is far behind us.�
Indeed, abs-cbn programs �whether news or entertainment- dominate rating surveys. At its peak, tv patrol had around 65% of the vewers, while gma balita would have only a third of abs-cbn�s share.
But gma isn�t about to raise the white flag. It agrees with other networks that abs-cbn news is not unbeatable and is showing signs of weakening. Viewers� preference are changing declares gma executive vice president Antonio seva. He adds that less and less of them are watching the early evening news, which used to be the network�s top-rating and income generating programs. �a lot of viewers now prefer entertainment at 6 pm,� says seva. �that�s what tv was originally meant anyway �entertainment.�
Abc channel 5 chief operating officer tina monzon-palma agrees that viewer lifestyles are changing. She notes, �people are now looking for something light when they reach home in the early evening. They look for drama or entertainment.�
Monzon-palma used to be an anchor of the top-rating �gma headline news� and vice president of the network�s news and public affairs division. She believes a surfeit of news has caused viewers to look for some kind of relief. Monzon-palma points out that viewers are bombarded with news most of their waking hours �from radio or the hourly tv news updates. At times, the networks even interrupt regular programming to provide viewers with live coverage of breaking news stories. Therefore, she says, lumping the news into a 30-minute special time block. No longer attracks the viewers.
�viewers are already numbified,� says monzon-palma. �they�re overloaded with news. They listen to and watch news the whole day, and they have a lot of choices. Sometimes viewers no longer watch news the whole day, and they have a lot of choices. Sometimes viewers no longer watch the late night newscast because the stories they hear are already history.�
Monzon-palma believes the viewers return only when there are big stories, such as fire at the ozone disco in march 1996 that killed 160 people. But even that, by the time the evening newscast is aired, there is little that people don�t already know.
�hindi mo na panonoorin kasi you saw and heard the whole thing from the networks earlier in the day,� she says.
But the abs-cbn exec disagrees. He says the other networks cite �changing viewer preference� only as an excuse to justify their inability to catch up. �umiilag lang sila sat v patrol,� he says �they�re just avoiding a head-on competition.�
At present tv patrol is the only remaining newscast in the 6 pm time slot. All other stations have since replaced their newscasts with either entertainment or sports programs. How much longer abs-cbn can hold out remains the big question.
Other sources at abs-cbn say the decline in their news viewership is real, and that network execs are troubled. Tv patrol�s audience, they say appears to be slowly shifting to the gma soap opera villa Quintana, which airs from 6:30-7 pm. At one point, villa Quintana was rating 21% tv patrol�s 25%, a mere four point-difference.
But gma execs would like to believe it is the 15-minute headline service, saksi, and not villa Quintana that is luring away viewers from tv patrol.
Sources at abs-cbn say the network considered moving tv patrol to an earlier time slot at 5:30-6:30 pm. But that, they say, have been tantamount to admitting defeat.
But there are other threats to abs-cbn�s lead. On the Friday that marilyn cortes was being grilled by channel 2 anchors, for example, there was another crowd-drawing show in progress on channel 13: the pba games, featuring the league�s comeback team, ginebra.
In fact tv patrol had slipped to number 2 the week before. According to the pulse tv ratings survey of �multi-weekly� programs, it was beaten by game 2 of the pba, another blockbuster ginebra game. That particular week �from april 28 � may 4, 1996- tv patrol got 25% of the audience share, against the pba�s 28%. In a full-page advertisement in mid-may, channel 13 even proudly announced it had garnered the number2 spot, overtaking gma7.
Abc-5, meanwhile, s also shifting back to entertainment at 6 pm, especially now that it appears to have been surpassed by ibc-13 as third top television network overall. Abc-5 has decided to transfer its Filipino news program, balitang balita, to an earlier time slot. In its place is a news entertainment-variety show called good evening, pls, patterned after the 1960�s oras ng ligaya.
But the networks do not seem to be listening to their own theories on the preference of today�s viewers, and are scrambling to up the public�s interest once more in news.
Their come-on of choice is apparently live television coverage, with abs-cbna and gma leading the pack. Both stations are acquiring more multimillion-peso electronic news gathering (ENG) vans, mobile production units that are virtual moving studios. The vans are giving the networks the power to respond quickly to breaking news and give viewers news �as it happens, where it happens.�
But buying the equipment is one thing, and having the staff handle it is another. Gma�s strength is that is still has in its stable the most veteran television reporters and producers in the industry, who have established and maintained reliable news resources. In the battle of the live news coverage, there have been several instances when gma managed to beat abs-cbn on breaking news.
One example is the promulgation of the sentence on convicted calauan mayor Antonio sanchez, when gma news aired the first footages of the court-room proceedings. More recently, gma beat abs-cbn when it got to the airwaves first with the video and story of the capture of fugitive rolito go.
Abs-cbn is said to have a deep bench of news personnel �reporters and newsreader who can easily cross the line between radio and television, and all of them with long experience facing cameras. The network also pays its people well, and has drawn talents from other networks because of this.
Plus, abs-cbn has the knack for packaging its programs well. Glitzy plugs aired every so often draw the viewers into most of the network�s programs, including the late night public affairs shows that tackle heavy political and social issues.
In march 1995, for example, abs-cbn drummed up interest in the case of Filipina domestic worker flor contemplacion, and got the public to await the death hour with her by urging them to light candles in their respective homes. Critics have branded this gimmickry, especially after the controversial sarimanok promo-contest in late 1994, which had the public watching abs-cbn�s primetime programs waiting fir the network�s mascot to appear. Other networks then said this promo distorted the surveys with artificial viewership. Gma had a similar promo at that time, but there was little public interest in it compared to the sarimanok craze that abs-cbn had generated.
But gma has seen so many news personnel come and go, mainly because of the low salary it pays it workers.
At the same time, broadcast media observers say while technical quality has gone up, coverage seems to have become less thought out. One of the stations, for instance, recently did a live remote coverage from a house in tondo, where dwarves were said to have appeared. They later found out the dwarves were actually shadows of people passing behind the house. The network itself admitted the �fake story� the next day.
And when the typhoon rosing hit manila in November 1995, abs-cbn did a round-the-clock coverage. Its reporters were stationed in various points and were airing reports even at ungodly hour of 1:30 in the morning. The network continued its coverage thru the morning, even though almost 100% of all homes in Luzon did not have electricity.
Still, the country may yet benefit from a vigilant broadcast media �whatever their reason for being so. At least, television is prepared at all hours to cover the news wherever it breaks out, compel authorities to act, and determine who should be accountable for wrongdoing. It�s a task the networks can accomplish successfully, if only they devote more energy giving quality tv than gunning for number one. #
source:
From Loren to Marimar
The Philippine media in the 90s
Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
(first published in i magazine)
