ABS-CBN Corporation

ABS-CBN Corporation is a Filipino media company based in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. It is the largest entertainment television and film production, program syndication provider, film distributor and media conglomerate in the Philippines. It is a subsidiary of Lopez Holdings Corporation, which is owned by the López family. ABS-CBN was formed by the merger of Alto Broadcasting System (ABS) and Chronicle Broadcasting Network (CBN). The conglomerate is metonymically called as "Ignacia" due to the location of its headquarters ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center along Mother Ignacia Street in Quezon City.
ABS was founded in 1946 by American electronics engineer James Lindenberg as Bolinao Electronics Corporation (BEC). In 1952, BEC was renamed Alto Broadcasting System (ABS) with its corporate name, Alto Sales Corporation after Judge Antonio Quirino, brother of President Elpidio Quirino, purchased the company and later launched the first TV station in the country, DZAQ-TV on October 23, 1953. The company that would later be merged with ABS to form ABS-CBN was founded in 1956 as Chronicle Broadcasting Network, Inc. (CBN) by Eugenio Lopez Sr. and his brother Fernando Lopez, who was the sitting Vice President of the Philippines. A year later, the Lopezes acquired ABS. The ABS-CBN brand was first used on television in 1961.
The conglomerate became known as ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation on February 1, 1967. It then changed its corporate name to ABS-CBN Corporation in August 2007 where it dropped the word "Broadcasting" on primary uses, to signify its diversification. Due to the change in the conglomerate's name, the ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation name is now used as the company's alternative and secondary name in certain contexts. The common shares of ABS-CBN were first traded on the Philippine Stock Exchange in July 1992 under the ticker symbol ABS.
Due to being denied for another 25-year free-to-air broadcasting franchise by the Philippine Congress, the conglomerate now mainly focuses on working as a content company, which includes producing television programs, films and other entertainment contents and distributions.
The company was founded on July 11, 1946, as Bolinao Electronics Corporation (BEC). BEC was established by James Lindenberg, one of the founding fathers of Philippine television, an American electronics engineer who went into radio equipment assembly and radio broadcasting. In 1949, Lindenberg shifted Bolinao to radio broadcasting with DZBC and masterminded the introduction of television to the country in 1953.
In 1951, Lindenberg partnered with Antonio Quirino, brother of then-Philippine President Elpidio Quirino, in order to try their hand at television broadcasting. In 1952, BEC was renamed as Alto Broadcasting System or ABS (with Alto Sales Corporation as its corporate name). "Alto" was a contraction of Quirino's and his wife's first names, Tony and Aleli, and is Spanish for "tall". Though they had little money and resources, ABS was able to put up its TV tower by July 1953 and import some 300 television sets. The initial test broadcasts began in September of the same year. The first full-blown broadcast was on October 23, 1953, of a party in Tony Quirino's humble abode. The television station was known as DZAQ-TV.
On June 16, 1955, Republic Act No. 1343 signed by President Ramon Magsaysay granted the Manila Chronicle its broadcasting franchise, leading to the formation of the Chronicle Broadcasting Network.
The Chronicle Broadcasting Network (CBN) was founded on September 24, 1956, by Eugenio Lopez Sr. and the then-Philippine Vice President Fernando Lopez. The network initially focused only on radio broadcasting. It launched its very own TV station, DZXL-TV 9, on April 19 (or July), 1958. On February 24, 1957, Don Eugenio acquired ABS from Quirino and Lindenberg. A month later, Don Eugenio also acquired Monserrat Broadcasting System.
In 1958, the network's new headquarters at Dewey Boulevard was inaugurated, and all radio and television operations were consolidated into its two buildings – the radio stations at the Chronicle Building at Aduana Street, Intramuros, Manila and the TV operations at the brand new Dewey Boulevard building in Pasay, Rizal.
The ABS-CBN brand was first used in 1961. However, it was only on February 1, 1967, that the corporate name was changed to ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation. Before it was named ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation, the corporate name was Bolinao Electronics Corporation (BEC).
In August 2007, the conglomerate's and network's corporate name were changed to simply ABS-CBN Corporation to reflect its diversification. According to the conglomerate's chairman Gabby Lopez during its annual stockholders' meeting three years later in May 27, 2010, the name change was "a response to the changes in the media landscape brought about by technology. The media business has gone beyond merely broadcasting to encompass other platforms."
ABS-CBN Corporation owns major media and entertainment companies in the Philippines, and offers services and products such as radio broadcast, satellite and cable television broadcast, broadcast syndication, telecommunications, publishing, content production and program and film distributor, television production, film production, new media and digital platforms, talent agencies, pay TV and broadband internet provider, consumer sales and merchandise, music label and recording, and theater.
The conglomerate owns and operates general entertainment broadcaster Kapamilya Channel and English-language news service ABS-CBN News Channel under ABS-CBN, AM radio station DWPM and Filipino-language cable and online news channel TeleRadyo Serbisyo (through a joint venture with Prime Media Holdings), and digital radio platform MOR Entertainment.
The Kapamilya Channel, in particular, is the largest contributor to the conglomerate's revenue mainly from selling airtime to advertisers. The remaining revenue is generated from block-timing and other networks and platforms as well as from consumer sales, mainly from ABS-CBN Global Ltd. and ABS-CBN International, which distributes international television channels such as TFC HD, ANC Global, Cinema One Global, Cine Mo! Global, TeleRadyo Serbisyo Global and Myx Global and also from pay TV and broadband internet provider Sky Cable Corporation.
Other companies which operate under the ABS-CBN media conglomerate are motion picture companies under ABS-CBN Film Productions, such as Star Cinema, Cinema One Originals, Cine Bro and Black Sheep Productions, the entertainment division ABS-CBN Studios (Dreamscape Entertainment, Star Creatives, RCD Narratives, JRB Creative Production and RGE Drama Unit under RSB Scripted Format), entertainment and film production Star Magic Studio (under Star Magic), and online ticketing and streaming site KTX.
It also operate music record labels under ABS-CBN Music, such as Star Music and its subsidiaries, Tarsier Records, and MYX Global. The conglomerates's publishing assets include ABS-CBN Publishing and ABS-CBN Books, pay TV content provider and distributor Creative Programs, telecommunications company ABS-CBN Convergence (68% co-owned with Globe Telecom). Its talent agency Star Magic is composed of divisions such as Star Hunt, Polaris, and Rise Artists Studio.
The ABS-CBN media conglomerate's main entertainment and production division is called Star Creatives Group. The conglomerate's pay TV networks and channels include ANC, Cinema One, Cine Mo!, Jeepney TV, Kapamilya Channel, Knowledge Channel, Metro Channel, Myx and TeleRadyo Serbisyo.
In recent years, ABS-CBN has ventured and diversified into other businesses such as over-the-top platforms iWant TFC, TFC IPTV and web-based channel Kapamilya Online Live. Both iWant TFC and Kapamilya Online Live are under ABS-CBN Digital Media, a new media and digital division under ABS-CBN which also handles news.ABS-CBN.com and ABS-CBN.com.
ABS-CBN is also the principal owner of the ABS-CBN Philharmonic Orchestra. It owns ABS-CBN Studios, Inc. which operates its production facilities nationwide, including the ABS-CBN Soundstage located in Bulacan, and the newly relaunched theater arm of ABS-CBN, Teatro Kapamilya. Aside from the ABS-CBN Soundstage, ABS-CBN also owns many other real estate properties used in its operations.