The agreement will allow the embattled media giant to be heard on the radio waves nationwide, again, three years since its radio stations got forced to go off the air in May 2020.
ABS-CBN is poised to make a return on radio airwaves this year after the approval of its content partnership with Prime Media Holdings Inc. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange today, May 23, the two companies agreed to a 51-49 equity share, with the Romualdez-owned company controlling the major chunk.
The confirmation about the partnership comes after weeks of speculations about the agreement ABS-CBN made with another media entity in its bid to resurrect DZMM. The disclosure eclipses ABS-CBN’s announcement of the termination of TeleRadyo’s services on June 30, this year. The all-Tagalog news channel has [reportedly] been bleeding money since ABS-CBN lost its franchise.
Prime Media has an extensive network of AM and FM radio stations nationwide, including its 24 FM stations. The agreement entails that Prime Media could use the DZMM brand, including the 630 KHz frequency utilization in Metro Manila.
ABS-CBN has already sold portions of its broadcast infrastructure, including transmitters and antennas, as part of the venture. The Kapamilya newscast TV Patrol [will once] again be on the airwaves via a block-time agreement with the Tacloban-based PCMC, also operated by the Romualdezes.
Also, in the agreement, Kapamilya news anchors such as Karen Davila, Noli de Castro, and Bernadette Sembrano and known Kapamilya programs are likely to return on the air.
