Solar Entertainment Corporation

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
2nd Avenue (television channel)
)

Solar Entertainment Corporation
Company typePrivate
IndustryMass media
FoundedJanuary 3, 1976; 48 years ago (1976-01-03) (as a TV movie company)
July 15, 1988; 35 years ago (1988-07-15) (as a film distribution company)
June 17, 2000; 23 years ago (2000-06-17) (as a cable television network)
January 1, 2008; 16 years ago (2008-01-01) (as a broadcast company)
Headquarters
Master Playout Facility:
Third Floor, Worldwide Corporate Center, EDSA corner Shaw Boulevard, Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines
Corporate Offices:
Solar Century Tower, 100 Tordesillas St., Corner H.V. Dela Costa St., Salcedo Village, Makati, Metro Manila
,
Philippines
Area served
Nationwide
Key people
  • William Y. Tieng (
    Chairman
    )
  • Willy Y. Tieng (
    Vice Chairman
    )
  • Wilson Y. Tieng (President and CEO)
  • Gidget Lao (Chief Executive for Business Operations)
Products
Services
PHP1.372 billion (FY 2015)[1]
PHP124.43 million (FY 2015)[1]
OwnerSolar Films Inc. (38%)
Wilson Y. Tieng (21%)
William Y. Tieng (15%)
SubsidiariesETC Productions
Southern Broadcasting Network
Solar Digital Media Holdings
Domestic Satellite Philippines, Inc.[2]
Websitewww.solarentertainmentcorp.com

Solar Entertainment Corporation (simply known as Solar or SEC) is a

Filipino media company based in Makati, Philippines. Founded and owned by the brothers, Wilson, William and Willy Tieng.[3] Solar Entertainment operates two digital free-to-air channels and two cable channels.[4] Solar also owns a film distribution company (Solar Pictures) and defunct freemium digital television service (Easy TV Home
).

History

Film production and distribution

Solar Entertainment was founded and established by the brothers William Tieng, Wilson Tieng and Willy Tieng in 1976. Solar Films was then formed in 1988 (one of the first films that distributed by Solar Films is Rambo III of Sylvester Stallone), bringing international films (and later, local films since 2009) to the Philippines. Since 2012, Solar has collaborated with independent film director Brillante Mendoza for a multiple film contract.[5] On March 18, 2015, Solar launched the Sinag Maynila film festival is, which featured five films from a talented group of directors, each with a different vision and approach. The films were shown in select SM Cinemas from March 18 to 24, 2015. The winners were announced at the “Gabi ng Parangal” on March 22.

On April 2, 2004, Solar announced that they distribute films from

Viacom's Paramount Pictures and Vivendi Universal's Universal Pictures) in the Philippines starting with DreamWorks Animation's Shrek 2 on May 2004, until an temporary restraining order stopping UIP's operations in the country in March 2014.[6][7]

Cable television

On January 1, 1994, Solar launched on cable television as the Solar Entertainment Channel.

On December 22, 2000, Solar acquired Domestic Satellite Philippines Inc. (DOMSAT) from the Philippine government through Presidential Commission on Good Government after Solar won the bidding for the franchise and assets formerly owned by DOMSAT, making DOMSAT a 100% Solar subsidiary.[8] As a result, DOMSAT’s teleport is being used by Solar to produce, originate, and distribute its various television program services. Its full service digital broadcast teleport features server technology facility located in Barangay Sta. Cruz, Sumulong Highway, Antipolo, Rizal. It is built around two encoder platforms, Scientific Atlanta Power Vu Classic(DVB) and Motorola Digicipher II(MPEG-@). Program origination is done on a SeaChange Media Cluster Server System. The facility includes a 500-square-meter studio and various linear and non-linear production bays.[9] Solar Entertainment first launched its namesake entertainment cable channel in the early 2000s, one devoted to American programs. This channel was later known as Solar USA (the acronym stands for "Ultimate in Suspense and Action"), and then later simply as USA before it was replaced by two separate channels.

In January 17, 2004, Solar launched on cable sports alternative channel as Sports Plus.

On March 1, 2004, Solar Entertainment launched

ETC
or Entertainment Central, which is positioned as the country’s premier cable female entertainment channel. ETC is a platform that brings its audience closer to their aspirational lifestyle, as embodied by their idols.

On April 5, 2005, it test launched delivering debuting service. Intended for a predominantly male audience, the company launched the country’s leading general entertainment cable channel, Jack TV, in July.

On October 15, 2005, Solar Entertainment launched a crime and action cable channel, Crime/Suspense or C/S.

On December 15, 2005, Solar Entertainment launched a spin-off channel to ETC,

ETC 2nd Avenue
, a lifestyle and general entertainment channel. Started as a test broadcast on December 15, 2005, and had its full launch in 2006. The channel was later renamed as 2nd Avenue on January 17, 2007.

On October 1, 2006, Sports Plus ceased broadcasting and replaced by the Basketball TV channel formed by Solar, while moving most of Sports Plus programs to Solar Sports.

As a broadcast company

On January 1, 2008, Solar Entertainment Corporation began to lease block airtime with terrestrial TV networks,

2nd Avenue
on RJTV.

Former logo of Solar Sports

On May 22, 2009, a victory party for Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao, who just became the new IBO (International Boxing Organization) and Ring Magazine Light Welterweight Champion, was held at the Renaissance Hotel in Makati, in partnership with GMA Network Inc. Solar and GMA executives at that time signed for a partnership in TV coverage of Manny Pacquiao's upcoming boxing matches.[11]

The C/S cable channel was later rebranded as C/S Origin in September 2008, while the RPN network later changed its branding to C/S 9 the next month.

On November 29, 2009, Solar rebranded C/S9 as Solar TV at 11:00 am with a slogan It's A Bright New World on RPN. On October 31, 2010, it changed some of its programming content to English/Tagalog with a new slogan Kung Saan Lahat Panalo!.

In mid-2010, GemCom sold all of its 97% equity share in SBN to Solar for Php 368.8 million. Since then, SBN became a fully owned subsidiary of Solar.

On February 11, 2011, SEC partnered with ABS-CBN Corporation to air National Basketball Association (NBA) games over free TV starting February 19, 2011. The games are aired on Studio 23 (now ABS-CBN Sports and Action later known as S+A) and ABS-CBN, but Solar still airs the games daily on BTV.[12]

Logo of Solar TV as a television network

On March 2, 2011, after SEC acquired 34 percent of RPN's shares from the Philippine government as part of RPN/IBC privatization in 2011, Solar TV finally ventured into news at the end of 2011. On that same day, ETC moved to

Today Show, Today's Talk, NBC Nightly News, Inside Edition, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Show with David Letterman.[13][14]

On April 8, 2011, Solar Entertainment Corporation launched The Game Channel on Destiny Cable. It conducted its initial test broadcast from April 8, 2011, until September 29. It then began airing on BEAM Channel 31 on August 15, 2011, after BEAM and Solar signed an affiliation deal, which gave the latter the use of the former's facilities. Full broadcast started on September 30, 2011.

In May 2011,

Beauty and the Beast, and local infotainment show ETC HQ. In 2013, ETC aired comedy-drama series The Carrie Diaries, sitcom series Super Fun Night, supernatural drama series Ravenswood, horror fantasy drama series The Originals
and among others.

Mai Rodriguez and Nancy Irlanda, known as the pillars of Solar News.[according to whom?] Most of its news reporters are from ABS-CBN and ANC, as well as from RPN NewsWatch.[15][16]

On December 24, 2011, The Game Channel limited its broadcast on daytime sharing with a new programming service called CHASE which takes over the evening block. In February 2012, both services aired a promotion, announcing the split of CHASE and TGC to form themselves as separate channels. On February 15, 2012, The Game Channel finally shuts down on free TV and was relaunched as a cable channel; CHASE was also relaunched as a separate channel, now occupying the entire BEAM broadcast airtime on Free TV.

On April 3, 2012, Solar transferred its former Salcedo Village facilities to their new facility in Worldwide Corporate Center in Mandaluyong.[17] It also featured a newly constructed set for Solar's then-news division, which would become fully functional three months later.

On July 16, 2012, Solar News launched its first local newscast Solar Network News, followed by Solar Nightly News, an hourly Solar News Update, Solar Daybreak, and Solar Newsday.

On September 7, 2012, Jack TV plugged their announcement through CHASE programs bearing the title "Another Jack TV is rising, coming soon on this channel" (BEAM Channel 31). This indicated that CHASE was being replaced; finally, on October 20, 2012, Jack City was then launched, marking October 19 as the end of CHASE's broadcasts. Jack City still does carry some of CHASE's programs however.

In October 2012, it was found out that Solar News would replace the government-controlled RPN News, as a result of RPN's privatization, making Solar TV covering the entire network's airtime. More than 200 RPN employees, particularly those from the labor union and the NewsWatch staff, were retrenched and RPN News was closed down on October 29, effectively axing NewsWatch and NewsCap. Some retrenched government employees were relocated to either People's Television Network (PTV 4) or Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (IBC 13) (both State-run broadcasters).

A Toyota HiAce van used by Solar News parked at the Office of the Ombudsman.

On October 30, 2012, at 5:45 am, TalkTV was replaced as Solar News Channel on Channel 21 via

CNN Philippines Cebuano News) made history as the first national newscast delivered in a local dialect. In 2014, it also launched the Kapampangan national newscast, Kapampangan News and the public service program Serbisyo All Access, which is shown in Filipino language
.

Prior to the channel's transfer to RPN, SNC's flagship newscast (Solar Network News) simulcasted on RPN 9 (free TV only) from the SNC's launch. The news content for RPN (then affiliated with ETC), however, was switched to Solar Nightly News on January 14, 2013, onwards, to avoid backlash from free TV viewers, particularly Free TV viewers of American Idol (in which the original plan was to replace the 6 pm via satellite broadcast to Free TV viewers by Network News, then airs the AI episodes at the 8 pm rerun in simulcast with cable and satellite viewers). Throughout the American Idol season, as the episodes are repeated at 8 PM on cable, Solar used the separate free TV-only feed, that contains reruns of selected ETC shows (but with advertisements replaced by ETC teasers and promotions) at 8 pm and Nightly News at 9 PM (with additional ETC programs, if necessary) to be used by RPN after each AI via satellite episode before RPN returns to the main ETC feed at 10 PM. This is to retain RPN's news content as it then has no newscast since the axing of NewsWatch.

On January 3, 2013, SEC launched Blink Cinema (later renamed as My Movie Channel) with the full broadcast taking effect later that month.

On April 14, 2013,

TV5 and its sister channel (AksyonTV), the games were also broadcast over Solar’s cable channel Basketball TV.[18]

New management

On May 22, 2013, Solar Entertainment Corporation appointed two officers to manage its broadcasting and cable businesses: Manuel “Meckoy” Quiogue as chief commercial officer and Maria Theresa “Mitos” Borromeo as chief operating officer (COO).[19] Quiogue, however, suddenly died on May 31, 2013, prior to assuming his position.[20]

On June 28, 2013, Jack City reduced its free TV broadcast to 18 hours a day on BEAM in compliance with the National Telecommunications Commission's guidelines. However, it still continues to air as a cable channel 24 hours a day.

On November 9, 2013,

Ramon Ang, explored the possibility of acquiring a controlling stake in Solar Entertainment Corporation in his personal capacity.[21][22] However, no further announcements were made after this and Ang subsequently reached an agreement to acquire a minority stake.[citation needed
]

Solar News Channel and its partnership moved to RPN 9 on December 1, 2013, while ETC returned to SBN Channel 21 a day before. (ETC was aired on SBN-21 from 2008 to 2011 then to RPN-9 from 2011 to 2013),[23] as well as the launch of Solar's video-on-demand website Blink. As a result of the channel swap (on RPN's part), Network News and Nightly News became newscasts on its own right.

In 2014, Solar Entertainment's Solar One Boracay happened during the Labor Day weekend to showcase its channels (ETC, 2nd Avenue, JackTV, JackCITY, My Movie Channel, The Game Channel, Solar Sports, BTV and NBA Premium TV) through various summer activities all over the island.[24]

On August 20, 2014, Solar Entertainment Corporation chief Wilson Tieng announced that he ceded his entire share on

Antonio Cabangon Chua, owner of business daily BusinessMirror and Aliw Broadcasting Corporation.[25][26]
Tieng sold Solar TV because they were losing money for operations after purchasing RPN. As a result of this ownership change, STVNI, Solar News Channel and RPN's majority stake were separated from the Tiengs; while ETC, 2nd Avenue, and Jack City reverted to Solar Entertainment's ownership.

On September 1, 2014,

SkyCable and Destiny Cable subscribers (per compliance with NTC's "must-carry" basis). This move resulted of Jack City in a change of its channel assignment for SkyCable and Destiny Cable
subscribers, as well as several pay TV companies.

In 2015, Solar Entertainment Corporation launched the #1stonPHTV brand of Solar channels for

2nd Avenue, Jack TV, Jack City and My Movie Channel
, with the brand implemented on January 6, 2015. Since then, all SEC channels broadcast first-run foreign television programs with the hashtag #1stonPHTV (First on Philippine TV), which was formerly known as "Match Airing" (ETC), "Playing 1st" (Jack TV), "The Newest in the US" and "FastCast" (2nd Avenue) and "See It First" (Jack City).

The Game Channel, after almost three years on broadcasting, selling or ceased on February 28, 2015. The channel space was taken over by My Movie Channel on March 1.

On March 22, 2015, Jack City was replaced by

CT
, thus becoming independent from its parent network. Upon launch, the channel broadened its programming focus by adding talk shows, sitcoms and men's lifestyle programs to its roster.

On March 26, 2015, Solar Entertainment announced its broadcast of the "Fight Of The Century" between

TV5, and GMA Network (who waived its exclusive contract with Solar to allow its multi-network coverage, but maintained its exclusive live broadcast on its radio division), with Solar Sports as its main content provider for this historic event in boxing.[28][29]

On July 1, 2015, My Movie Channel ceased broadcasting. The closure or selling was announced by Solar a day before.

Rebranding of the four flagship networks

On October 16, 2016, Solar relaunched its flagship channels ETC, 2nd Avenue, Basketball TV and Solar Sports. The four networks unveiled their new logos, on-air graphics and station IDs, which took effect on that day. CT, Jack TV, Shop TV and NBA Premium TV on the other hand remains unchanged. Also that day, Solar launched its corporate campaign slogan ...There's More To Come, which evolved in 2017 as We go for More.

In 2017, Solar Entertainment became the official Philippine broadcaster of the 65th edition of the

Asia Broadcast Satellite to launch the first nationwide free-to-air direct-to-home satellite television services using the C-band, which is set to launch on the 3rd quarter of the year.[30]

Carriage disputes

Sky Cable

2008

Solar's channels have ceased airing on

2nd Avenue, Solar Sports and Basketball TV
, but Solar made a decision that they would only renew their contract if Sky Cable carried all six channels. Thus, Solar decided to pull out all their channels rather than remove ETC and Jack TV.

However, Solar has signed a deal with local terrestrial channels

ABC, RPN, SBN and RJTV for block-time programming. C/S, ETC and 2nd Avenue programming are seen on terrestrial TV channels RPN, SBN and RJTV, respectively, while NBA and WWE programming were seen on TV5, now moved to RPN (WWE programming are currently being broadcast thru TV5, while its terrestrial NBA coverage were moved to ABS-CBN Sports
under Solar).

Most of its channels were later returned to Sky Cable, while Jack TV would eventually return to its lineup on October 1, 2010, replacing Maxxx.

Meanwhile, Pacquiao's boxing promotion, Top Rank, signed a non-guaranteed contract with ABS-CBN Sports to exclusively air fights promoted by Top Rank, with the exception of Pacquiao fights which are still signed exclusively through Solar Entertainment.

2017–2019

On April 10, 2017, 3 days before the

Fox Sports within the week and a loop of an NBA promo. Solar did not comment on the situation for the removal of the channels, but sources and some netizens pointed out a carriage dispute between the two parties for not paying an undisclosed price to continue broadcasting these channels, which was later proven true by an article published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer
.

As the dispute continued, some media enthusiasts and netizens raised concerns of whether these Solar channels will return to Sky and/or Destiny. Others pointed that inaction between the two parties could affect the next long-term local broadcast franchise with the NBA, slated to begin at the Association's 2019-2020 regular season. (Solar and Sky's parent, ABS-CBN, would share the airing of NBA games on pay and terrestrial television. Rumours circulated that both networks may bid separately, if they could not reach renewal, and use their respective infrastructure to broadcast adequate NBA coverage. Otherwise, rival networks with a functioning sports department like

The 5 Network
may also seek their own bidding to take over the 2019 contract from both Solar and ABS-CBN.)

Netizens and viewers were dismayed and frustrated by the removal of the said channels by Sky Cable, most notably for BTV and NBA Premium due to the importance of the Playoffs. Some netizens were angered by the removal of the said channels and asked Sky Cable to return the channels before the scheduled Playoffs would begin, however Sky Cable would respond to angered netizens on social media that they are "fixing the situation with Solar". Other netizens and viewers would otherwise switch providers from Sky Cable to other cable companies that carried these channels or to other satellite providers like Cignal.[32]

On October 16, 2018, Basketball TV and NBA Premium TV returned to Sky Cable, Sky Direct, & Sky On Demand after an 18 month absence;[33] however it was removed on October 28, 2018, for unknown reasons.[34]

The carriage dispute officially ended on January 1, 2019, when all Solar channels: Basketball TV, NBA Premium TV, Solar Sports, and Jack TV were restored on Sky (including Sky On Demand & Sky Direct).[35]

Ironically, MTVph, which is a Solar channel, ended its operations on the same day at that time Sky resumed the affected Solar channels. As of 2019, Sky's sister company Destiny Cable still did not carry all the aforementioned Solar channels despite its aforementioned return on Sky Cable.

During the aforementioned period, Shop TV, ETC and 2nd Avenue (now defunct) were kept on-the-air, due to the "must-carry" rules by the NTC. MTVph was also kept on the air (until it was discontinued on January 1, 2019) since it was carried in a separate programming agreement outside of the affected channels despite its ownership.

Dream Satellite TV

Crime and Investigation Channel
. As of 2017, ETC and 2nd Avenue remained on its lineup due to the "must-carry" rules of the NTC.

Unfortunately, Dream Satellite ended its operations on December 31, 2017, due to bankruptcy and its competition with other satellite providers.

Divisions / Subsidiaries

Filmography of Solar Pictures

Notable local films released or distributed by Solar Pictures

Broadcast assets

Terrestrial TV channels

Cable TV channels

Former subsidiary, divisions and broadcast assets

Defunct cable, terrestrial channels and former digital TV distribution

  • 1Joint venture with
    Viacom International Media Networks Asia
  • 4Joint venture with RPN 9 (2013–2014)/SBN 21
(2012–2013)

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Media Ownnership Monitor Philippines – Solar Entertainment Corporation". VERA Files. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  2. ^ "Presidential Decree No. 947". LawPhil.net.
  3. ^ Solar Resources – About Us Solarresourcesinc.com, Accessed on December 15, 2015
  4. ^ "List of Solar Networks". Solarentertainmentcorp.com.
  5. ^ "Solar Today". Archived from the original on May 17, 2014. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
  6. ^ "UIP, Solar ink distribution pact". The Philippine Star. April 2, 2004. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
  7. ^ "Court stops distribution of UIP films in PH". Inquirer.net. March 13, 2014. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
  8. ^ "Solar Entertainment acquires Domsat". philstar.com. December 22, 2000.
  9. ^ "MVP-Ang rivalry set to spill over into television with San Miguel acquisition of Solar stake". November 9, 2013. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  10. ^ Valisno, Jeffrey O. (September 26, 2007). "Cable company dropping Solar channels effective Jan.1". GMA News Online. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
  11. ^ "GMA victory party for Manny 'Pac-Man' Pacquiao". PEP.ph. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  12. ^ ABS-CBN News. "ABS-CBN to air NBA games on free TV". ABS-CBN.com. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  13. ^ Agustin, Victor C. (February 25, 2011). "Tiengs move into news". Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved December 10, 2014.
  14. GMA News Online. January 3, 2011, Retrieved January 3, 2011[clarification needed
    ]
  15. GMA News
    . February 10, 2012, Retrieved February 10, 2012
  16. ^ Ramon Ang says in talks to buy Solar Entertainment ABS-CBN News. April 10, 2012, Retrieved April 10, 2012
  17. ^ "Solar News Update debuts new look". Medianewser.com.
  18. ^ "TV5, Solar team up for 2013 FIBA Asia Championship coverage - InterAksyon.com - Sports5". InterAksyon.com. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  19. ^ "9news.ph - 9news Resources and Information". 9news.ph. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  20. ^ "Your life is your message to the world". BWorldOnline.com. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  21. ^ "San Miguel's Ang keen on Solar TV, owner of RPN-9". Rappler.com. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  22. ^ "'Meeting of minds' reached in talks with Ramon Ang for investment, says Solar chairman". InterAksyon.com. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  23. ^ Dumlao, Miguel R. Camus and Doris C. "New investor vows to turn RPN 9 around". Inquirer.net. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  24. ^ "Solar One Boracay at the District Boracay!". Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  25. ^ Exclusive: BusinessMirror owner acquires majority stake in RPN9 Archived August 22, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, InterAksyon.com, August 20, 2014
  26. ^ Agcaoili, Lawrence (August 21, 2014). "Cabangon-Chua acquires RPN-9". PhilStar.com. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  27. ^ Cordero, Abac (March 27, 2015). "ABS-CBN, GMA, TV5 join hands to air Pacquiao fight: Networks unite for historic broadcast". PhilStar.com. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  28. ^ "Pacquiao vs Mayweather to be televised by GMA, ABS-CBN and TV5". Rappler.com. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  29. ^ "Pacquiao-Mayweather fight to air live over GMA radio stations nationwide". GMANetwork.com. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  30. ^ Kendall Russell (May 22, 2017). "ABS, The Solar Group to Launch New DTH Service in the Philippines". Satellite Today. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  31. ^ Rola, Alyssa (April 16, 2017). "Sky subscribers frustrated as NBA Premium, BTV unavailable for playoffs start". Rappler. Retrieved April 16, 2017.
  32. ^ Terrado, Reuben (April 15, 2017). "SKYcable unable to give timetable for return of NBA Premium, Basketball TV to channel lineup". Spin.ph. Retrieved April 16, 2017.
  33. ^ Terrado, Reuben (October 16, 2018). "NBA Premium, BTV channels back on SKYCable, per advisory". Spin.ph. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  34. ^ "SKY Advisory". Me & My SKY: SKY at 25 years.
  35. ^ "NBA Premium and BTV are back in SKYcable's channel lineup". Spin.ph.
  36. ^ "8 official entries to 2009 MMFF bared". PhilStar.com. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  37. ^ Lo, Ricky (November 5, 2012). "Flames of Love celebrates the Year of Faith". PhilStar.com. Retrieved April 6, 2017.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Solar_Entertainment_Corporation&oldid=1217513633"