C/S, ETC, 2nd Avenue on free TV

By Bayani San Diego Jr. - Inquirer

Solar Entertainment bared its new channel lineup at the Advertising Congress in Subic on Thursday.

According to Solar head Wilson Tieng, his company has formed an “alliance” with four free TV channels, both on the VHF and UHF bands—RPN 9, SBN, RJ TV and ABC 5. The new partnerships resulted from the impending termination of Solar channels in Home and SkyCable, Tieng said.

In an official statement, Juno Chuidian, SkyCable vice president for programming, said: “With the entry of our three new channels (Balls, Maxxx and Velvet), SkyCable will no longer carry [Solar channels] Basketball TV (BTV), Solar Sports, ETC, 2nd Avenue, Jack TV and Crime/Suspense.”

Streamlining

Chuidian said this move is envisioned to “strengthen and streamline [SkyCable’s] programming mix.” After all, he noted, “some of the more prominent programs on [Solar] channels may still be found on free TV or SkyCable’s other channels such as Star World and AXN.”

Tieng said that moving to free TV would solve his company’s problems, including “bad signal in our old cable companies.”

He said C/S programs will be seen on RPN 9, ETC shows on SBN and 2nd Avenue series on RJ TV “24 hours a day, 7 days a week, starting Jan. 1, 2008.”

Ramon Jacinto, head of RJ TV, told Inquirer Entertainment that his regular shows—“Thank God It’s RJ” and “RJ Online”—would be retained in their weekend time slots.