HISTORY

The Company’s key historical milestones are as follows:

1950

• GMA Network, Inc. (GMA) is born. Robert “Bob” Stewart sends the first signals of radio station dzBB from a makeshift studio on the 4th floor of the Calvo Building in Escolta.
• dzBB introduces political satire on the program Kuwentong Kutsero.

1951

• dzBB airs the first live radio coverage of the Senate and Congressional sessions featuring on-the-spot telephone interviews for the first time.

1955

• dzXX becomes the first pop music station in the Philippines.

1961

• Taking off from the success of dzBB, RBS TV Channel 7, the third television station in the country, starts operations.
• RBS 7 offers the first radio cooperative sponsorships (“coop spots”) to small advertisers.

1963

• TV Channel 7 – Cebu is inaugurated.

1975

• The new management of RBS 7 led by Gilberto M. Duavit, Menardo R. Jimenez, and Felipe L. Gozon takes over, acquires new equipment, introduces new programs, and adopts the brand name GMA Radio Television Arts (GMA-7) and the new slogan “Where You Belong.”

1976

• DWLS-FM goes on air.

1987

• GMA-7 opens the state-of-the-art live studio facility at Broadway Centrum.
• GMA-7 introduces the first hourly news capsules on TV dubbed as GMA News Live.

1988

• GMA-7 inaugurates the GMA Tower of Power. At 777-feet, it is the tallest man-made structure in the country with a 100 kilowatt power transmitter.

1991

• GMA-7 Foundation is formally established.
• GMA-7 becomes the first Philippine broadcast news organization to receive a bronze medal from the New York Festival in the Breaking News category.
• GMA-7 introduces the first radio-television simulcast programming.

1992

• GMA-7 inaugurates Rainbow Satellite, making its programs available simultaneously throughout the country and Southern Asian countries, namely, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Borneo, Myanmar, and parts of Australia and China.
• GMA-7 expands into a network of 33 affiliate stations, making it the country’s largest TV network.

1993

• GMA-7 becomes the first broadcast station to win a Gold Medal in the prestigious New York Festivals for the Best Station/Network I.D.
• GMA-7 launches the first local interactive program mechanism on TV in GMA Feedback.
• GMA-7 introduces “Worry-Free Kid TV,” a pre-screened entertainment for children which received a citation from UNICEF as a model for “children-friendly television.”
• GMA-7 airs the first interactive satellite broadcast between Manila and San Diego, CA with the show Kumusta America, Hello Philippines.

1995

• GMA-7 becomes the first local network to venture into UHF TV with Citynet 27, the Philippine’s “Window to the World.”
• Alta Productions, Inc. is formed – a GMA subsidiary involved in production and post-production. Radio GMA (RGMA), an affiliate of GMA is incorporated.
• GMA-7 ventures into the art of cinema with Cinemax, now the internationally-recognized GMA Network Films, Inc.
• GMA-7 is the first to use an ENG van with live video playback capability via on- board microwave link.
• GMA-7 becomes the first station to introduce remote coverage news reporting.

1996

• Republic Broadcasting System, Inc. (RBS) changes its corporate name to GMA Network, Inc. as it evolves into a conglomerate of companies engaged in moviemaking, post-production services, film syndication, marketing, props and prosthetics.
• GMA Worldwide, Inc. is established – a subsidiary in charge of GMA program syndication and distribution.

1997

• GMA-7, joins the 8-group consortium and Mabuhay Philippines Satellite Corporation (MPSC), in launching Agila II, the first Philippine satellite.
• GMA-7 enters cyberspace via its two websites – gmanetwork.com and www.gmaquest.com.

1998

• GMA-7 switches on to the Agila II satellite and the new 100 KW transmitter facility, the strongest in the world.
• GMA Network Films, Inc. releases the critically acclaimed and box-office hit Jose Rizal, starring Cesar Montano and directed by Marilou Diaz-Abaya.
• GMA Network, Inc. ranked 10th in Overall Leadership and 5th in Innovation In Responding To Customer Needs by Far Eastern Economic Review for the first time.

1999

• EMC Network, Inc., the first local music station in the country, forges a strategic alliance with Channel V Music Network Ltd. Partnership to form Channel [V] Philippines.
• GMA-7 introduces innovations in the delivery of news and public affairs on TV:
• the first late evening news in Filipino on GMA Network News.
• the first to deliver with the anchors standing up in GMA Network News.
• the first full-length weekly documentary program i-Witness.
• the first solo-anchored, late-evening newscast Frontpage, Ulat ni Mel Tiangco.

2000

• GMA-7, the sole official Philippine partner to the Global Millennium Day Broadcast, welcomes the new millennium with the 2000 Today on GMA broadcast and GMA-Ayala Millennium Celebration beamed to 67 countries of the world.
• GMA-7 becomes the first local TV station to air 24 hours of programming.
• GMA-7 makes history by being the first Philippine recipient of the George Foster Peabody Award, the most prestigious news broadcasting award in the world.
• GMA Network, Inc and Philippine Daily Inquirer form a joint venture to create the online, multimedia news portal www.INQ7.net.

2001

• GMA-7, together with its media and telecommunication partners, delivers the most comprehensive election coverage the Philippines has ever witnessed in Eleksyon 2001.

2002

• GMA-7 launches its new corporate equity; “Kapuso Mo, Anumang Kulay ng Buhay”.
• Saksi wins the World Gold Medal as Best Newscast in the New York Festivals, a first for Philippine news program.

2003

• GMA-7 is No. 1 in ratings in Mega Manila.
• GMA Network, Inc. achieves a net income of more than P1 billion, a first in GMA’s history.
• GMA Network, Inc. is again named one of Asia’s leading companies in the Review 200 survey of the Far Eastern Economic Review magazine.
• The House of Representatives (12th Congress) adopts Resolution No. 787 commending GMA Network, Inc. for uplifting the standards of the country’s broadcast industry by giving the Philippines its first George Foster Peabody Award in 2000 and making the Philippines the first and only Asian country to win the Gold Medal for television news in the New York Festivals on January 17, 2003.
• GMA-7 introduces the first reality-based talent search program, Starstruck, and the first Filipino reality TV series, Extra Challenge.

2004

• GMA Network, Inc. receives the 2003 Top Realty Taxpayer of Quezon City Award.
• In the Asian Wall Street Journal 200 survey (formerly Review 200 by the Far Eastern Economic Review), GMA Network, Inc. placed 7th among the Philippines’ ten leading companies.

2005

• GMA-7 launches its international channel, GMA Pinoy TV in Japan, Guam, United States and Malaysia.
• GMA-7 receives the coveted Asian TV Award for Terrestial Channel of the Year, the first in Philippine broadcasting industry.
• Through a co-production and/or blocktime agreement with ZOE Broadcasting Network, GMA-7 launches QTV Channel 11.
• GMA Films makes a grand and remarkable re-entry in the movie industry with a pre-valentine movie entitled Let the Love Begin. The movie is a top movie grosser, garnering P106.1M in gross theatrical receipts.
• Darna holds the highest ever rating at 46.6% for a pilot episode and is the very first telefantasya to hit 51.7% ---a soaring success that remain unsurpassed in Philippine TV.
• GMA achieves a net income of more than P2 billion.

2006

• GMA-7 writes history as the first Philippine network to broadcast live, via satellite from the Base Camp of Mount Everest and the first to broadcast via satellite phone at 21,000 feet above sea level, the highest altitude ever tested for broadcast via satphone.
• GMA-7 pioneers the use of globally recognized backdrop for a soap, I Luv NY. The first of its kind on Philippine primetime TV.
• GMA-7 is accorded the highest trust rating based on Pulse Asia’s July 2006 “Ulat ng Bayan” Survey among Metro Manila viewers.
• GMA-7 launches news portal: GMANews.TV, a showcase platform for News and Public Affairs branded journalism across all content formats (video, audio, text), story types (news, business, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, etc.) and various languages (English, Filipino, Cebuano, Ilonggo).

2007

• GMA-7 is listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange with primary and secondary offer of 91,346,000 common shares and 822,115,000 Philippine Deposit Receipts (PDRs). The domestic offer was oversubscribed by 7.3x and the international offer was oversubscribed by 29x.
• I-Witness: The GMA Documentaries “Boy Pusit” wins the World Gold Medal for Social Issues and Current Events at the 200 New York Festivals for Television and Film.
• GMA-7 introduces innovations in its voter-education and election-related programs:
  • The Philippine Agenda – regarded as the most important and most comprehensive election program on primetime television. This program veered away from the personalities of the campaign and instead focused on issues that all elected officials should address.
  • Isang Tanong – put together the 36 senator candidates in a no-holds-barred forum. The program also featured a formidable panel of interrogators who tested the boldness, intention and sincerity of each candidate in a grueling question and answer portion.