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ZOE Broadcasting Network

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This article is about the Philippine television network (Light TV). For the American television network of the same name, see Light TV (U.S.).

ZOE Broadcasting Network, Inc.
(ZOE TV)
Company typePrivate
IndustryRadio and television broadcasting
Founded1991; 33 years ago (1991) (radio broadcast)[1]
April 18, 1998; 26 years ago (1998-04-18) (television broadcast)
Headquarters22/F Strata 2000 Bldg., Emerald Ave., Ortigas Center, Pasig, Metro Manila, Philippines
Area served
Philippines
Key people
  • Eddie Villanueva, Founder
  • Sherwin Tugna, President and Chairman
  • Rene Gonzalez, Vice President and General Manager
  • Nestor T. Layderos, Head, Programming, Sales and Marketing Department
  • Engr. Vincent G. Ronquillo, Head, Engineering Department
ParentJesus Is Lord Church
Websitewww.zoe.com.ph
ZOE TV
TypeBroadcast television network
CountryPhilippines
Broadcast areaNationwide
Programming
Language(s)
  • Filipino (main)
  • English (secondary)
Picture format480i (SDTV)
History
LaunchedApril 19, 1998; 26 years ago (1998-04-19)
FounderEddie Villanueva
Light TV
TypeBroadcast television network
CountryPhilippines
Broadcast areaNationwide
Programming
Language(s)
  • Filipino (main)
  • English (secondary)
Picture format1080i (HDTV)
(downscaled to 16:9 or letterboxed 480i/576i for the SDTV feed)
History
LaunchedMarch 10, 2008; 16 years ago (2008-03-10) (as ZOE TV 33)
March 1, 2011; 13 years ago (2011-03-01) (as Light TV)
FounderEddie Villanueva
Former namesLight Network (2014–2018)
Links
Websitelighttv.ph

ZOE Broadcasting Network, Inc. (ZOE TV or ZBNI) 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 in Mega Manila, Baguio, Bacolod, Calamba, Laguna, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Iloilo, Zamboanga and Puerto Princesa. The company also owns its first television station in Metro Manila, DZOE-TV 11 and its DTT companion UHF channel 20, which currently airs the A2Z network, a joint-venture partnership between ZOE and ABS-CBN Corporation through its blocktime agreement.

History

Initial period

The frequency rights of Channel 11 under call letters DWXI-TV in Metro Manila was given to a joint venture of influential religious groups in the 1990s: El Shaddai a Catholic charismatic-based group headed by Mike Velarde and Jesus Is Lord Church an evangelical Protestant group headed by Eddie Villanueva. Conflict of interests started the two groups to contest the full ownership of the station. The Philippine Congress intervened and awarded to Mr. Villanueva and the JIL the right to acquire channel 11. Villanueva paid Velarde for the stocks and assets held by the channel's then-owner Delta Broadcasting System (DBS).

On April 13, 1998, JIL began its broadcast history with channel 11's relaunch as DZOE-TV, with ZOE Broadcasting Network, Inc. as the new corporate name. It also launched the new station ID and slogan "Give Love, Celebrate Life," which have been the corporate motto for years.

In 1999, Entertainment Network (Enternet), headed by Benito Araneta, and ZOE entered in a channel lease agreement that saw Enternet occupying the station's morning and afternoon block through CNBC Asia. Three years later, disagreements on the contract led to ZOE pulling out Enternet's program block and the latter filing a case on Villanueva.

In 2001, ZOE TV became the first TV station to air the second EDSA Revolution.

In 2004, Villanueva resigned as the company's chair to run in the country's presidential elections. After ending last in the election results, Villanueva returned to ZOE and continues his appearance on various ZOE TV programs.

Channel lease agreements

This logo for used from 2011 to 2014

In April 2005, Citynet Network Marketing and Productions, Inc., a subsidiary of GMA Network, Inc., and ZOE TV entered to an agreement for Citynet leasing the entire TV airtime block of the station in exchange of upgrading ZOE TV's facilities and ZOE distributing its in-house programs to GMA Network's airtime.[2]

On September 1, 2005, channel 11 quietly went off the air as GMA installed, upgraded and rehabilitated the transmitter and studios of ZOE TV. At the same time, Channel 11's 40 kW transmitter in Ortigas was decommissioned in favor of an upgraded 100 kW transmitter facility purchased by GMA located at the GMA Tower of Power site in Brgy. Culiat, Quezon City, with ZOE maintaining transmitter operations for the station (due to current ownership restrictions requiring only one station per broadcaster per frequency). ZOE TV, meanwhile, was relaunched on Channel 33 through its new call letters DZOZ-TV (a variant of DZOE-TV). Channel 33 began using its newly constructed 30 kW transmitter tower station located in Antipolo, while retaining the Ortigas Center studios as its master control facility.

On November 11, 2005, after a series of test broadcasts, GMA Network finally handled master control operations of channel 11 and launched their new second TV network through ZOE TV. It started as an all-female lifestyle channel QTV (Quality TeleVision; later renamed as simply Q on March 18, 2007), then reformatted as news and public affairs channel GMA News TV (now GTV) on February 28, 2011.

In July 2006, Channel 33 began on test broadcast with its airing of job opening program Future Finder on limited broadcast hours in preparation for a relaunch of DZOZ-TV's new branding on November 27, 2006. On that day, after the series of test broadcasts, it began broadcasting, then under a blocktime agreement between ZOE and Makati-based Estima, Inc. The result of the deal was student-oriented channel UniversiTV. The channel has proven to be a hub for college and university students, catering them with evening and overnight programs every day. By that time, it operated from 4 pm to 8 am the following day, but eventually retracted its broadcast hours until 4 am during its last few months of airing. However, on March 10, 2008, UniversiTV ceased its agreement with Channel 33, possibly due to poor ratings and lack of advertisers' support. This made ZOE TV left with almost no programming to offer along with the return of the old ZOE TV station ID from 1998 until 2005, though, they surprisingly aired entertainment programs in the evening and a weekday morning TeleRadyo-formatted news program under the ZTV 33 brand. UniversiTV on the other hand, was then relaunched as a Pay TV channel via satellite and cable operators, but totally ceased operations by 2010.[3]

Recent developments

This logo for used from 2014 to 2018

On March 1, 2011, a day after channel 11 was relaunched as GMA News TV (now GTV), channel 33 was rebranded as Light TV 33, introducing new programs produced by ZOE, and at the same time, relaunching its in-house news production through its flagship newscast News Light. Soon, channel 33 slowly regained its programming with programs mostly dedicated to religious formats. On March 31, 2014, Light TV was renamed Light Network, launched its refreshed logo, and had a new slogan called "Experience Light" (with "light" as reference to JIL's belief in Jesus Christ as "the light of the world"), while retaining the slogan "Kaibigan Mo" (Your Friend).

On February 28, 2017, DZOZ-TV formally ceased its traditional analog terrestrial television signal, while officially launching its digital terrestrial television signal, using the ISDB-T standard. Upon doing so, it became the first Philippine television station to permanently shut down analog transmissions, as part of the country's wider transition rollout to digital TV.[4] A week later, on March 6, Light Network revamped its on-air presentation to reflect the digitization completion. It also launched its slogan "Magaan dito, Kaibigan" (It's light here, Friend), giving another definition to the word "light" as an easy or light-hearted experience due to its programming.

On February 12, 2018, Light Network reverted its name to Light TV with its new slogan "God's Channel of Blessings".

On April 24, 2019, GMA Network/Citynet Network Marketing and Productions announced that it will terminate its blocktime agreement with ZOE Broadcasting after June 2, 2019. The split comes after the release of GMA's 2018 financial report which declared the increasing lease payments that the network contributes to ZOE for the past three years in exchange of operating DZOE-TV (from ₱899.89 million in 2016 to almost a billion pesos in 2018). Third-party sources reported that Channel 11 would run as a full-power analog satellite of DZOZ-DTV after the termination of the agreement, but ZOE has no official statement yet on its future plans. The termination took effect in two phases: all of ZOE's in-house programs were pulled out from GMA & GMA News TV's programming by June 3; and a day after, GMA News TV Manila's intellectual unit (master control, sales, and employees) transferred to Citynet's DWDB-TV for the remainder of the analog broadcast run.

To continue GMA Manila's digital television broadcast, DZBB-TV and its GMA News TV (now GTV) subchannel are reported to transfer to UHF channel 15 (479.143 MHz), which the National Telecommunications Commission, through a memorandum circular in 2016, authorized to operate as part of NTC's plans to license digital channels 14-20 for major TV broadcasts.[5]

On June 22, 2020, ZOE Broadcasting Network break their record as the first broadcasting company who officially switched and migrated to digital broadcast when they managed to re-air Light TV back on analog broadcast via its flagship TV station VHF 11, one year after GMA News TV (now GTV) moved its operations via UHF 27. 4 days later, however, the analog simulcast was short-lived and was replaced with Christian programming content while still conducting its test broadcast. It is rumored to be part of marketing the channel for either airtime/blocktime or for channel leasing.

Partnership deal with ABS-CBN

Since 2017, ZOE Broadcasting Network and ABS-CBN Corporation were reportedly holding talks for possible airtime lease of Channel 11 or acquisition of the network itself if the issues regarding ABS-CBN's now-expired broadcast franchise were ever floated and on October 10, 2020, ZOE Broadcasting Network made its partnership agreement with ABS-CBN Corporation after its shutdown on free television and rebrand ZOE TV as A2Z on VHF Channel 11. The new channel airs shows and movies produced by ABS-CBN as well as religious shows from its sister station, Light TV, Trinity Broadcasting Network and CBN Asia.[6]

Meanwhile, after a month of launching of the said new channel, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) was reportedly investigating ABS-CBN and ZOE Broadcasting Network to determine if the said blocktime agreement of the two stations was processed in legal ways.[7][8]

Affiliation with PCMC and digital terrestrial expansion

On September 20, 2021, ZOE Broadcasting Network signed an partnership agreement with Philippine Collective Media Corporation's PRTV Tacloban to air A2Z's programming on PRTV Tacloban, As a result, PRTV Tacloban became a network-affiliated station for the first time in its history.[9]

In January 2022, the country's National Telecommunications Commission granted a provisional authority for ZOE, to utilize UHF channel 20 for its DTT operations; this allowed the network to transmit both A2Z and Light TV terrestrially outside Metro Manila.[10]

Legislative franchise renewal

On July 17, 2016, the Philippine Congress passed Republic Act No. 10888, known as "An Act Renewing for Another Twenty-Five (25) Years the Franchise Granted to ZOE Broadcasting Network, Inc., Amending for the Purpose Republic Act No. 7297, Entitled “An Act Granting the ZOE Broadcasting Network, Inc. a Franchise to Construct, Install, Operate and Maintain Radio and Television Broadcasting Stations Throughout the Philippines, and for Other Purposes”, as Amended by Republic Act No. 7968", granting ZOE TV a legislative franchise for its radio and television broadcast operations all throughout the country.[11]

Stations

TV stations[12]

Digital terrestrial

ZOE TV's upcoming expansion of digital terrestrial television will be announced soon as possible in other key cities nationwide.

Branding Callsign Ch. # Frequency Station type Power kW (ERP) Location (transmitter site)
A2Z Manila DZOE-TV 20 509.143 MHz Originating 5.5 kW (Max: 20 kW) Crestview Heights Subdivision, Brgy. San Roque, Antipolo, Rizal (Mega Manila)
Light TV Manila DZOZ-DTV 33 587.143 MHz 5 kW (Max: 25 kW)
A2Z Baguio DWOZ-DTV 32 581.143 MHz Relay 10 kW (Max: 30 kW) Mt. Sto. Tomas, Tuba, Benguet (Northern and Central Luzon)
A2Z Iloilo DYZA-DTV 20 509.143 MHz 5.5 kW (Max: 10.5 kW) Brgy. Alaguisoc, Jordan, Guimaras (Western Visayas)
A2Z Cebu DYNZ-DTV Mount Busay, Brgy. Babag 1, Cebu City (Central Visayas)
A2Z Cagayan de Oro DXEV-DTV Macapagal Drive, Brgy. Bulua, Cagayan de Oro (Northern Mindanao)
A2Z Davao DXEX-DTV Shrine Hills, Matina, Davao City (Davao Region)

Digital Subchannels

ZOE TV's nationwide digital broadcast is multiplexed into the following subchannels:

Channel Video Aspect Short name Programming Note
x.01 480i 16:9 A2Z A2Z (Main DZOE-TV programming) Commercial broadcast (10 kW)
x.02 Light TV Light TV (DZOZ-DTV)
x.31 240p 4:3 A2Z OneSeg A2Z 1seg black screen
  Simulcast of subchannels of another station

Digital affiliate stations

Branding Callsign Ch. # Virtual channel Frequency Station type Owner Power kW (ERP) Location (transmitter site)
A2Z Tacloban DYPR-TV 50 27.03 689.143 MHz Affiliate Philippine Collective Media Corporation 2 kW Remedios Trinidad Romualdez Hospital Compound, Brgy. 96 (Calanipawan), Tacloban, Leyte. (Eastern Visayas)

Analog

Branding Callsign Ch. # Station type Power kW (ERP) Location (transmitter site)
A2Z Manila DZOE-TV 11 Originating 50 kW (Max: 100 kW) Crestview Heights Subdivision, Brgy. San Roque, Antipolo, Rizal
Light TV Palawan DWDZ-TV 33 5 kW Puerto Princesa, Palawan

A2Z via cable and satellite television

Cable/Satellite Provider Ch. # Coverage
Cablelink 104 Metro Manila
Sky Cable 11 Metro Manila
Cignal 20 Nationwide
G Sat 9 Nationwide
SatLite 20 Nationwide

Radio stations

Branding Callsign Frequency Power (Watts) Location
Radyo Calabarzon DZJV 1458 kHz 10,000 watts Calamba
Light FM DWZB 91.1 MHz 5,000 watts Puerto Princesa

Programming

Further information: List of programs broadcast by Light TV

See also

References

  1. ^ "An Act Granting Zoe Broadcasting Network, Inc. a Franchise to Construct, Install, Operate and Maintain Radio and Television Broadcasting Stations in the Island of Luzon and for Other Purposes". The Corpus Juris. Corpus Juris. March 26, 1992. Archived from the original on October 13, 2021. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
  2. ^ "GMA Network partners with Zoe Broadcasting Channel 11". The Philippine Star. April 28, 2005. Archived from the original on April 28, 2019. Retrieved April 28, 2005.
  3. ^ "Cablechannel_assignments". Archived from the original on May 11, 2016. Retrieved January 31, 2009.
  4. ^ Delos Reyes, Dyan (February 14, 2017). "Light Network, nasa Digital TV na!". Light Network Website. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  5. ^ ZOE Broadcasting to end blocktime agreement with GMA Network Archived April 28, 2019, at the Wayback Machine Accessed April 28, 2019.
  6. ^ Aguilar, Krissy (October 6, 2020). "Zoe TV rebrands as A2Z to feature ABS-CBN Shows". INQUIRER.net. Archived from the original on October 8, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  7. ^ "Solon calls for investigation into ABS-CBN-A2Z Channel 11 blocktime deal". PEP.ph. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  8. ^ "House told NTC, BIR to investigate ABS-Zoe blocktime deal". The Asian Affairs. Retrieved October 23, 2020.[permanent dead link]
  9. ^ "Congratulations, Zoe Broadcasting Network and Philippine CollectiveMedia Corporation..." Facebook. Archived from the original on September 21, 2021. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
  10. ^ "ABS-CBN shows continue to return to former bailiwicks via TV5, A2Z digital TV expansions". LionHearTV. February 15, 2022. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  11. ^ "Republic Act No. 10888" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on October 13, 2021. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  12. ^ "NTC List of TV Stations as of Jun 2022 via FOI website" (PDF). foi.gov.ph. July 6, 2022.
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