In the mid-Nineteen Sixties, if someone wanted to observe color television in Southeast Asia, there was just one country where they may accomplish that. This wasn’t Singapore, Malaysia or Thailand.
It was the Philippines.
The breakthrough was not resulting from government policy or being the richest economy within the region. Instead, it was the product of an especially competitive private television sector that adopted latest technologies years before it caught up with most Southeast Asian countries.
The race is hosted by private broadcasters
Unlike many Southeast Asian countries where television was initially run by the state. The Philippines developed a highly competitive business broadcasting industry at an early stage.
The country’s first television station, Alto Broadcasting System (ABS), began broadcasting in 1953, making the Philippines one in every of the primary countries to adopt television in Asia. Competition intensified after ABS merged with Chronicle Broadcasting Network (CBN) to form ABS-CBN in 1961.
Under the leadership of Eugenio López Jr. ABS-CBN expanded beyond Manila, merged regional stations right into a growing national network and pursued latest broadcasting technologies.
Working with the American electronics company RCA (Radio Corporation of America), ABS-CBN introduced the primary color television broadcasts in each the Philippines and Southeast Asia in June 1966.
The broadcasts used the NTSC color standard and initially began as test broadcasts. Full color broadcasting officially launched in 1971.
Although color televisions remained expensive and comparatively rare, the Philippines had officially entered the colour television era.
The color arrived before a lot of the region was ready
The early adoption of color television within the Philippines was not merely a matter of wealth. This reflected how in another way the tv industry had evolved within the country.
Many neighboring countries have taken a special path. Television broadcasting was mainly carried out by state-owned networks, whose original priority was to increase television coverage to a bigger variety of households moderately than to introduce latest, expensive broadcasting technologies.
As a result, color television appeared a few years later in most of Southeast Asia.
Singapore introduced regular color broadcasting in 1974. Malaysia then introduced national color television in 1978. Indonesia’s TVRI began limited color broadcasting within the mid-Seventies, then expanded regular color broadcasting at the tip of the last decade.
Then politics modified the image
The Philippines’ technological advantage didn’t last in the identical political environment that made it possible.
In September 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law within the country. ABS-CBN was taken off the air, its facilities were seized by the federal government, and lots of independent media outlets were shut down.
Television broadcasting continued, but on networks controlled by the Marcos administration and its allies. Color television remained on Philippine screens, however the competitive broadcasting landscape that helped drive early innovations effectively disappeared.
This only modified after the People Power Revolution in 1986, when Marcos was faraway from power.
The latest government returned ABS-CBN’s facilities and frequencies, allowing the network to resume broadcasts on September 14, 1986, almost fourteen years after it was silenced.
A legacy beyond television
Color television eventually became the usual in Southeast Asia. But when he first arrived within the region, he didn’t start out within the country that many would have expected.
It began within the Philippines, a milestone shaped not only by technology but by the identical competitive, contested media landscape that made ABS-CBN a goal greater than once.
After several dozen years, this story got here back to light. In 2020, ABS-CBN was forced to withdraw from broadcasting again after being denied the extension of its broadcasting franchise.
We are reminded that the connection between media, technology and political power within the Philippines remains to be being written.
