(Eagle News) – Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III filed a bill on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021, seeking to renew the expired franchise of ABS-CBN.
Senate Bill 1967 was introduced by Senator Sotto, seeking to renew for another 25 years the franchise of ABS-CBN to operate and maintain TV and radio broadcast stations in the Philippines among others which was previously granted under Republic Act. No. 7966.
Sotto, in introducing the bill, cited the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey in December 2019 that showed that “television remains to be the top source of news in the country.”
He said that ABS CBN is the “Philippines’ largest entertainment and media network” and that in September, it was still the “top choice of viewers in the Philippines, citing Kantar Media.
“Likewise Filipinos abroad feel a little less away from home due to The Filipino Channel, commonly known as TFC” which was owned and operated by ABS CBN.
“ABS-CBN’s wide reach to Filipinos, alongside with the undeniable advantages of broadcast media relative to mass communications, definitely calls for the immediate renewal of the network’s franchise,” he said in SB no. 1967.
“Thus the passage of this bill is earnestly sought,” Sotto concluded.
ABS-CBN’s franchise expired on May 5 last year. In July last year, the House of Reoresentatuves rejected ABS-CBN’s bid to renew its franchise.
(Eagle News Service)