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DWDB-TV, Channel 27 is the flagship UHF station of the Philippine television network GTV, wholly owned by Citynet Network Marketing and Productions, a subsidiary of GMA Network, Inc.. Its studios are located at the GMA Network Center, EDSA cormer Timog Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City, Metro Manila, while its transmitter station is located at the GMA Tower of Power, Tandang Sora Avenue, Barangay Culiat, Quezon City, Metro Manila. It is the first UHF station operated by a major network in the Philippines. It operates weekdays from 6:00 AM to 12:15 AM and weekends from 6:00 AM to 12:00 AM.

History[]

Citynet Television (1995-1999)[]

DWDB-TV signed on for the first time on August 27, 1995, under the on-air brand Citynet Television 27 (or just Citynet 27). The station was programmed like an independent station—GMA intended Citynet 27 to be its main outlet for imported programming (particularly from the United States), freeing up slots in GMA Network's schedule for more domestic productions. Aside from an English dub of the Hispanic telenovela Ka Ina, the only locally produced program on the station was Citynet Television News, a flagship TV news show produced by GMA News and Public Affairs.

EMC 27 / Channel [V] Philippines (1999-2001)[]

However, by 1999, the costs of operating the station in this format were becoming too high for GMA. As a result, DWDB was turned into a music channel under the interim branding EMC, the Entertainment Music Channel—which was also the country's first locally operated music channel. A few months later, GMA reached a deal with Asian broadcaster STAR TV to allow DWDB to be a carrier of Channel V Philippines, which took effect December 19, 1999. GMA had already aired selected Channel V programming from its international version (which made the former VJ's and Filipino descented Trey Farley and Joey Mead familiar to viewers of DWDB). This arrangement did not last long—a stake in GMA was recently purchased by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, who already owned MTV Philippines through the Nation Broadcasting Corporation and its parent company MediaQuest Holdings. This conflict of interest, along with the increasing competition from the MTV affiliated network, led to the channel signing-off on July 25, 2001.

Abandoned plans, silent years and as the translator of GMA and QTV[]

After PLDT's acquisition stake of GMA and its inactivity, they already have a bared plans to somehow relaunch this channel into a news channel. However, it didn't pushed through as GMA having another plans for the station in the near future.

Programming would return to DWDB in 2004 as the relay of GMA-7 Manila with the logo of GMA was covered by the logo of Citynet. In November 2005, the station later became a repeater of DZOE 11—which served as the flagship for GMA's newly-secondary national network QTV (or Quality Television, later renamed to just Q). GMA had reached an agreement with its owner, religious broadcaster ZOE Broadcasting Network, to allow GMA to handle programming for the station, in exchange for providing upgraded facilities for the broadcaster and airing ZOE-produced programming in QTV's lineup. DWDB's UHF signal had the advantage of easier to receive in the southern areas of Metro Manila, especially in the metropolitan cities of Makati and Pasay.

This practice was discontinued in 2007, as DWDB's signal was vacated for use in trials of digital television.

Digital broadcast[]

Last February 2013, GMA started its digital test broadcasts, simulcasting both GMA-7 and GMA News TV-11 using the Japanese ISDB-T digital TV platform using the channel's frequency.

On May 15, 2019, GMA Network's digital test broadcasts used the same frequency as its digital feed, and it also started its initial digital test broadcast on UHF Channel 15 (479.143 MHz), which serves as the main digital feed of GMA Network when this frequency reverted to analog broadcast, and will continue its service for the remainder of the analog feed.

Reversion to analog broadcast and GMA News TV (2019-2021)[]

On April 24, 2019, ZOE Broadcasting Network and GMA/Citynet announced that their blocktime agreement will expire by the end of May 2019. This ended their day partnership and in turn, their lease blocktime on VHF Channel 11 after 14 years. ZOE Broadcasting Network was reported to simulcast Light TV 33 upon termination of the agreement, but ZOE has no official statement yet on its future plans (however it pushed through a year later after this event and became active again since June 22, 2020). As a result, Channel 27 digital broadcast was planned to switch-off on May 27, 2019, as the station was supposedly conducting its test broadcast on the said date. The channel in turn, will be re-utilized to broadcast GMA News TV in analog by June 3, 2019 after 18 years of inactivity.

However, GMA Network had to allot time for the digital television viewers to re-scan their digital boxes in order to continue watching their channels in a different frequency assignment. As a result of this, GMA Network decided to move their official relaunch date from June 3 to 4. The station successfully signed on for the first time upon its return to analog television at 6:00 am (PHT), after conducting test broadcasts during off-air hours of digital signal for the past days after its announcement of this move, and it now served as the originating station of GMA News TV in Manila. It also acts as the main feed station nationwide with its regional counterparts (like in Cebu and Davao). On the other hand, after the transition, the former channel conducted its last broadcast until it lowered its signal, and officially signing off on June 5, 2019.

Digital television[]

Digital channels[]

DWDB-TV's feed is broadcast on DZBB-TV digital subchannel operates on UHF channel 15 (479.143 MHz) and broadcasts on the following subchannels:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming Note
07.01 480i 4:3 GMA Network Main DZBB-TV programming/GMA Network Commercial broadcast
07.02 GTV GTV
07.03 HEART OF ASIA Heart of Asia
07.04 HALLYPOP Hallypop
07.05 I LOVE MOVIES I Love Movies
07.07 DEPEDTV DepEd TV
07.31 240p GMA1SEG GMA 1seg 1seg broadcast

According to a December 2017 press release, the station's upgraded signal transmission covered the areas of Metro Manila, Rizal, Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan and parts of Pampanga, Bataan, Nueva Ecija and Batangas.

On April 24, 2019, GMA/Citynet announced that it will terminate its blocktime agreement with ZOE Broadcasting by the end of May 2019. The split comes after the release of GMA's 2018 financial report which declared the increasing lease payments that the network contributes to ZOE for the past three years (from ₱899.89 million in 2016 to almost a billion pesos in 2018). Third-party sources reported that Channel 11 would simulcast ZOE's sister station DZOZ-DTV channel 33 after the termination of the agreement, but ZOE has no official statement yet on its future plans. GNTV Manila's intellectual unit (master control, sales, and employees), on the other hand, was successfully transferred to DWDB-TV on June 4, 2019 for the remainder of the analog broadcast run.

On May 15, 2019, GMA Network began to transmit its digital test broadcast on UHF Channel 15 (479.143 MHz) as its permanent frequency assigned by National Telecommunications Commission.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "About GMA Network - History". GMANetwork.com. Archived from the original on October 28, 2008.
  2. ^ "Channel V's Philippines deal off". bNet Business Network. July 2001. Archived from the original on 2009-03-05.
  3. ^ "PLDT Completes Due diligence to GMA". PhilStar.com. June 14, 2001.
  4. ^ Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas (May 15, 2019). "GMA Network Starts Digital TV Transmission using permanent frequency". GMA Network.com. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  5. ^ JM Meligrito (April 28, 2019). "ZOE Broadcasting to end blocktime agreement with GMA Network". dtvpilipinas.org. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  6. ^ "Dobol B Sa News TV will begin airing on Channel 27 starting June 3". GMANetwork.com. April 29, 2019. Retrieved April 29, 2019.

External links[]


Template:Country data PhilippinesTemplate:Namespace detect showallScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Broadcast television in the Metro Manila market
Reception may vary by location and some stations may only be viewable with cable television
Network O&Os are in bold

VHF channels
DZMV 2 (All TV) | DWGT 4 (PTV) | DWET 5 (TV5) | DZBB 7 (GMA) | DZKB 9 (RPN) | DZOE 11 (A2Z) | DZTV 13 (IBC)


UHF channels
DWKB 22 (RPTV) | DZEC 25 (Net 25) | DWDB-TV 27 (GTV) | DWDE 35 (DBS) | DWAO 37 (UNTV) | DWNB 41 (One Sports) | DWDZ 47 (IBC Plus) | DZCE 48 (INC TV)


Digital channels
DWGT 14 (4.01 PTV, 4.02 Congress TV, 4.03 Radyo Pilipinas 1 Television, 4.04 PTV Plus) | DZBB 15 (7.01 GMA, 7.02 GTV, 7.03 Heart of Asia, 7.06 Hallypop, 7.07 I Heart Movies, 7.08 Pinoy Hits) | DZMV 16 (2.01 All TV) | DZTV 17 (13.01 IBC, 13.02 IBC Plus, 13.03 IBC Classics, 13.04 IBCinema, 13.05 IBC Kids, 13.06 DZTV TeleTrese, 13.07 DMZ Channel) | DWET 18 (5.01 TV5, 5.02 One PH, 5.03 One Sports) | DZKB 19 (19.1 RPN, 19.2 RPTV, 19.3 DZKB Radyo Ronda TV, 19.04 Retro RPN, 19.05 RPN Kids, 19.06 RPN Life) | DZOE 20 (11.01 A2Z, 11.02 Light TV) | DWCP 21 (21.02 SolarFlix, 21.03 Shop TV) | (PA) 23 (23.01/23.02 Aliw Channel 23) | DZEC 28 (28.01/28.02 Net 25, 28.03/28.04 INC TV) | 29 (RJTV, Timeless TV, Radyo Bandido TV, Rock of Manila TV, TV Maria) | DWKC 31 (31.01 BEAM, 31.02 Blast Sports, 31.03 DZXL News Television, 31.04 Knowledge Channel, 31.05 Life TV, 31.06 Pilipinas HD) | DZOZ 33 (ZOE TV, Light TV) | 36 (36.01 CLTV 36) | DWAO 38 (31.01 UNTV, 31.02 Truth Channel) | DWAQ 39/43/44 (39.01 SMNI, 39.02 SMNI News Channel, 39.03 DZAR Sonshine Radio) | 43 (SMNI, SMNI News Channel, DZAR Sonshine Radio) | DWVN 45 (45.01/45.02/45.03 Hope Channel Philippines, 45.04 One Media Network) | DZCE 49 (1.01/1.03 INC TV, 1.02 Net 25) | (PA) 51 (5.01 TV5, 5.02 One PH, 5.03 One Sports)


Inactive stations
DWCP 21 (SBN) | DWAC 23 (AMCARA) | DZRJ 29 (RJTV) | DWKC 31 (BEAM TV) | DZOZ 33 (ZOE TV) | DZJV 33 (Light TV) | DWAQ 39 (SMNI) | DWVN 45 (GBN) | DWNN-TV 46 (IBC News Network) | (PA) 51 (MediaScape) | DWBC 68 (BCI)


Inactive digital channels
DWWX 16 (2.01 Knowledge Channel, 2.02 O Shopping, 2.03 Asianovela Channel, 2.04 Movie Central, 2.05 Jeepney TV, 2.06 Myx) | DZBC 30 (30.14 ETC, 30.15 Shop TV, 30.16 Solar Learning/DepEd TV NCR, 30.17 Solar Learning/DepEd TV ALS) | DWBM 43 (1.01 Jeepney TV, 1.02 Asianovela Channel, 1.03 Cine Mo!, 1.04 Yey!, 1.05 TeleRadyo, 1.06 KBO) | DWKC 50 (32.01 DepEd TV, 32.02 TV Shop, 32.03 Pilipinas HD, 32.04 Life TV)


Defunct stations
DWWX 2 (ABS-CBN) | DZXL 4/9 (ABS-CBN) | DZRH 11 (MBC) | DZRU 41 (MTV Philippines)


1ABS-CBN franchise renewal controversy.
2Offline, due to Cease and Desist order of NTC.

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