FBN

The Filipino Broadcasting Network (FBN) is a Philippine free-to-air television network that is the flagship property of FBNNational, a company under the Ayala Group. The network is headquartered at the FBN Broadcast Center in Quezon City, with additional offices and production facilities in 25 major cities including Baguio, Naga, Bacolod, Iloilo, Cebu, Davao, etc. FBN is formally referred to as "The Kapinoy Network"; Kapinoy is a Filipino term which means a member of a nation. This was originally introduced in 2005 and was officially introduced in 2010 during the celebration of its 50th anniversary. It is the largest television network in the country in terms of revenues, assets, and international coverage.

FBN is the fourth oldest television broadcaster in the Philippines (behind ABS, CBN and IBC). It is also the leading television network in the Philippines with advertising revenues of 21.2 billion pesos for the fiscal year of 2015. FBN's television broadcast was on March 1, 1960 on DZFT-TV. The second television network in the Philippines to formally launch a digital terrestrial television service, and the second broadcast television network in the Philippines to formally launch in high-definition.

Today, the flagship television station of FBN is DWLT-TV (FBN TV-4 Manila). The network operates across the Philippine archipelago through the FBN Owned Television Stations division which controls eight owned-and-operated and eight affiliated television stations. Its programs are also available outside the Philippines through the global subscription television channel Global FBN which is now available in over three million paying households worldwide. Since 2011, the network is on test broadcast for digital terrestrial television using the Japanese standard ISDB-T in select areas in the Philippines. On March 11, 2017, FBN started to broadcast in high-definition through its affiliate direct-to-home cable and satellite television providers.

History
FBN was launched on March 1, 1960.

In 1970, FBN broadcast in color by using the American NTSC standard.

When then-President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972, the station was forced, along with its other stations and other television networks to shut down.

On June 1 1992, Channel 47, the second UHF channel was launched with the live musical special, "The Gold Network: The Golden Age of the Network, and produced a slew of new locally produced programs that composed 80% of its programming lineup then. The relaunch successfully gave the station a boost in the ratings, and by 1995, FBN became the Philippines' number two TV network, a position it has maintained ever since.

Later that year, the station launched nationwide domestic satellite programming and by 1995, expanded its operations worldwide. In 2000, along with the 40th anniversary, Channel 47 launched its 120-kilowatt transmitter, resulting in improved signal quality throughout Mega Manila.

In 2005, along with the 45th anniversary, FBN transferred from UHF 47 to VHF 4 and re-upgraded its transmitter into a very high capacity of 346.2 kilowatts resulting in a much clearer signal in Metro Manila.

In 2018, FBN became the best television network and launched its new slogan Filipino's Best Network.

Also in December of the same year, FBN inaugurated its new state-of-the-art sound stages studio complex called Life Park located at Global City in Taguig which is on par with Hollywood standards.

Digital terrestrial television
FBNNational initially applied for a license from the Nation Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to operate a digital terrestrial television service in the country back in 2010, FBN planned to utilize multiplex to offer FBN, BEAM TV and 5 additional specialty TV channels. The conglomerate is expected to spend at least 1 billion pesos annually for the next 5 years for its DTT transition. FBN utilized UHF channel 43 Manila (647.143 MHz), later UHF Channel 47 (671.143 MHz), for test broadcasts in the DVB-T format. FBN was expected to begin digital test broadcasts in August 2010.

In June 2010, the NTC announced that it would formally adopt the Japanese standard ISDB-T for digital broadcasting and issued a circular commanding all the country's television networks to switch-off their analog services on December 31, 2015 at 11:59 p.m. Philippine Standard Time (UTC+8). But due to delay of the release of the implementing rules and regulations for digital television broadcast, the target date was moved to 2023.

In February 2014, the conglomerate announced further details about its DTT plans, which would offer FBN and BEAM TV. In addition, three new channels which will be exclusively available to its digital users will be offered once the digital broadcast start. The specialty TV channel line-up will include one news channel, one youth-oriented channel, and an archive channel. The sequestered is also planning to utilize the 1seg (one segment) broadcast standard for handheld devices.

High-definition television
FBN has the 24 units of Sony HDC-1400R high-definition portable studio cameras in preparation for high definition production. BEAM TV produced the first domestic high definition telecast; the coverage of the PBA which was shown on FBN. In addition, two of its three Eurocopter AS355 news chopper are capable of transmitting high-definition livew feeds from its 5 axis gimbal HD camera mounted on the nose of the aircraft.

The cameras will be deployed to all of its regional stations across the country including the main headquarter in FBN Broadcast Center at Diliman, Quezon City.

On March 1, 2016, in celebration of its 56th anniversary of the network, FBN launched a high-definition feed in SkyCable, Cignal and Destiny Cable under the new logo of FBN. This marked the Philippines' second commercial television network to be launched in high-definition. The said channel will broadcast selected shows of FBN in true high-definition picture while the remaining shows will be broadcast in upscaled standard definition picture with pillarbox to preserve its original 4:3 aspect ratio. FBN was also made available on Local FBN (later merged to RYB), a video on demand streaming service.

Tapeless
The conglomerate invested in a tapeless technology from EVP, a first of its kind in Southeast Asia. it provided the network a non-linear post production workflow and wireless access on remote areas via media access management system utilizing the HD OB Van and Xt(2) provided in partnership with EVS and with the integration with WAM, Pacific, Inc. and Avid Technology and through Wi-Fi network.

Digital archiving
FBN started digitizing its content in 2010 when invested in a 3 million dollar deal with IBM Corporation that includes a hardware infrastructure support and 2 petabytes (2000 terabytes) of storage capacity that is expected to grow by 30% over the years as FBN generating over 500 hours of content a month. The technology, 13 million dollar deal integration with Dalet Digital Media Systemsa and Adiv Unity ISIS (Infinitely Scalable Intelligent Storage) will enable FBN to digitize and store its over 13,000 hours of television content and its library of over 2000 films. The Big Dipper Digital Content & Design, Inc. is the subsidiary that oversees all of its digital assets.

Competition
From 1960 until 1967, FBN was the number two television network in the country, showing full-length Tagalog films and its primetime lineup, as FBN ranked the number two slot among the five television networks. When the martial law was declared, FBN, ABS-CBN and other television networks (except Radio Philippines Network, then as Kanlaon Broadcasting System or KBS) were forced to shut-down and held control by the Government. When it was re-established in 1992 as a commercial television, it had failed to regain its glory days and was ranked behind among the five television networks. It was not until 1993, when it was re-branded as "The Gold Network" that it had slowly regained its foothold in TV ratings. FBN is currently favored by giant companies such as Procter and Gamble, Unilever, Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo and Caltex since 2015. Now FBN is the best television network since 2018.