GMA News TV (GNTV; visually rendered in its logo in all capital letters as GMA NEWS TV) is a 24-hour Philippine-based international

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...

channel owned by Citynet Network Marketing and Productions Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of GMA Network Inc. Originally launched in the Philippines on February 28, 2011 as a domestic free-to-air

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replacing QTV. It launched an international

channel (GMA News TV International) in the latter part of 2011. GMA News TV ended its Philippine broadcast operations on February 22, 2021 to give way to GTV. GMA News TV International was renamed to GMA News TV and continues to broadcast.

History

GMA News TV was created as a replacement for " Q", a network which primarily featured imported dramas and lifestyle-oriented programming aimed towards women, and as part of

GMA News and Public Affairs GMA Integrated News and Public Affairs (formerly known as ''RBS News Department'', ''GMA Radio-Television News'' and ''GMA Rainbow Satellite News''; and commonly GMA (Integrated) News) is the news division of the GMA Network Inc. The division ...

's plans to expand its presence on free-to-air television. GMA News TV was unveiled on February 7, 2011 through GMA-7's flagship newscast '' 24 Oras'', and Q was discontinued on February 20, 2011, in preparation for the launch of the new service, which occurred on February 28, 2011. Until 2019,

ZOE Broadcasting Network ZOE Broadcasting Network, Inc. (ZOE TV) is a Philippine broadcast media arm of the Jesus Is Lord Church. Based in Ortigas Center, Pasig, it operates a network of television and radio stations each in Mega Manila, Puerto Princesa City, Visaya ...

served as an originating affiliate and flagship station of GMA News TV, as a result of a blocktime lease agreement between ZOE Broadcasting and GMA's subsidiary Citynet Network Marketing and Productions in 2005, allowing the latter to lease the entire airtime of DZOE-TV 11 Manila, in exchange for upgrading the former's facilities and an off-peak timeslot for its programs on Channel 11 and

GMA Network GMA Network (Global Media Arts or simply GMA) is a Philippine free-to-air television and radio network. It is the flagship property of publicly traded GMA Network, Inc. Its first broadcast on television was on October 29, 1961. GMA Network (f ...

. However, due to increasing lease payments of GMA Network to ZOE Broadcasting which is accompanied with decreased revenues of GMA, the two networks announced on April 24, 2019 that they will terminate the agreement by the end of May 2019. As a result, GMA News TV Manila was reassigned to analog Channel 27, which was being used for digital test broadcast of GMA Network, on June 4. In turn, DTV operations of GMA were transferred on a permanent frequency, UHF Channel 15 (479.143 MHz), which was being used since May 15. On July 27, 2019, GMA News TV premiered its first and only English language news broadcast ''GMA Regional TV Weekend News'' (now '' Regional TV Weekend News'') before switching to Filipino since September 12, 2020. In line with the enhanced community quarantine imposed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

outbreak, GMA News TV temporarily went off air on March 19, 2020 and has returned on air on March 21, 2020 with limited broadcasting hours. On April 13, 2020, the channel resumed its regular primetime programming after '' 24 Oras'', with its full programming restored by September 21.

Programming changes and rebranded as GTV

On November 21, 2020, an article was published by its affiliate news portal Sports Interactive Network,

announced plans for a possible reformat of GMA News TV into a sports and entertainment channel which is to be similar to the old format of Citynet Television and QTV. The plans were unveiled following GNTV's gradual shift away from its original news channel format and towards general entertainment and sports since September 2020, which includes acquisition of broadcast rights to

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and PSL games, a simulcast of its sister digital channel

Hallypop Hallypop is a digital entertainment channel owned by Jungo TV in partnership with Cinedigm, based in the United States. The channel airs programming content from Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) which focuses on Korean variety shows, music, dr ...

, and additional entertainment programs from its mother station

due to increase of its commercial load. This changes drew negative reactions by viewers, where news coverages were put on hold for entertainment programs, notably when the Philippines were hit by Typhoon Goni (Rolly). On February 9, 2021, the network announced that GMA News TV will be rebranded as GTV on February 22, less than a week to the day GNTV was launched a decade ago. To reflect the change, GMA News TV's presentation was dramatically overhauled on February 22, 2021, it was replaced by GTV, the channel also featured to news, entertainment and sports programs. The "GMA News TV" brand has since been used for by the international channel, with the word ''International'' being dropped after 10 years.

Final programming

Most of GMA News TV's programming consisted of news and public affairs programs produced by

. Outside of its core programming, the channel aired entertainment programs including lifestyle, cooking shows, talk shows, local and foreign drama, comedy and reality series, travel, foreign animated series, local and foreign movie blocks, sports programs and additional programming produced by GMA.

Availability

GMA News TV was seen via regular free-to-air television on Channel 27 in

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...

Cebu Cebu (; ceb, Sugbo), officially the Province of Cebu ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Sugbo; tl, Lalawigan ng Cebu; hil, Kapuroan sang Sugbo), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 16 ...

and Davao and other 28 regional stations nationwide. Aside from GNTV's main analog signal, it was a must-carry channel on all cable and satellite TV providers nationwide. This channel was also available as a digital subchannel through GMA's main digital transmitters in Metro Manila, Baguio, Batangas, Cebu, and Davao.

GMA News TV International

Later in 2011, GMA Network would also launch a 24-hour international version called GMA News TV International to complement its two other international channels (

GMA Pinoy TV GMA Pinoy TV is a Philippine pay television channel that was launched in March 14, 2005, by GMA Network. Operated by its subsidiaries, GMA International and GMA Worldwide Inc, it is targeted towards the Philippine diaspora. Programming Th ...

and GMA Life TV). Unlike its domestic counterpart, programs on GMA News TV International air tape-delayed (except for selected special events such as live coverage of Day 1 of Eleksyon 2013) and the timepiece on the lower-left hand side of the screen is covered. It began to be offered as a preview channel in Australia on FetchTV, IPS/AccessTV in Japan, GUdTV in Guam, Zuku TV in Kenya and on OSN, with an official launch planned for the third quarter of 2011. GMA News TV International was officially launched on UBI World TV on December 1, 2011. In May 2012,

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provider MTS TV added GMA News TV International, becoming its first Canadian carrier. In November 2012, Optik TV added the channel to their lineup. Additionally, GMA News TV international is now also available in Singtel TV in SD. GMA News TV International was officially launched on Starhub TV in January 2019 along with GMA Pinoy TV and GMA Life TV. In Hong Kong, GMA News TV International was launched through Now TV in June 2015. In Europe, Australia and New Zealand, GMA News TV International (along with GMA's other international channels) is available through over-the-top streaming service Lyca TV. Despite the rebranding of GMA News TV as GTV on February 22, 2021 in the Philippines, the international version will continue using its name afterwards.

References