MBN12

MBN3 is an English-language Filipino-American flagship commercial television network of media conglomerate, Mega Broadcasting Corporation. They were widely known for their entertainment television shows, which was formerly distributed nationwide via its sister channel, National. The network's main headquarters are in Quezon City, and in San Fernando, Los Angeles, California. Founded by business partners, Raymond James Garcia and Benjamin Kalinga Concepcion, who formerly worked for ABS-CBN from 1963, until 1967.

It was launched on December 15, 1967, as MegaManila Television, which only serves the Mega Manila region (except for Palawan and Mindoro). They made several successful animated television series and sitcoms during 1979 and 1996, such as Rover, Our House, The Newlyweds Show, etc.. In 1973, National was launched to distribute MegaManila Television's programs nationwide, as they were only broadcasting in Mega Manila. In the same year, they started broadcasting every 4:45 a.m. until 11:30 p.m. In 2011, MBN launched its digital counterpart, and the television station later rebranded as 9tv, on August 25, 2013, until December 31, 2017, the final day of their analog broadcast. It rebranded again this time as MBN, on January 1, 2018, until most recently, on April 25, 2021, the station was renamed to MBN3.

1967-1972: Launch
The station was launched on December 15, 1967, as MegaManila Television. It consisted of a 4-hour launch night special, however only approximately 374 people were watching them at the time. They only aired several borrowed movies at the time, until December 30, 1967, when they launched their first ever news program, MMNews (now MBNews), which includes human interest and feature stories. NewsMagazine9 later followed, which was first aired on January 17, 1968.

In February 1968, they started airing entertainment programs from other television stations, which included game shows, cartoons, talk shows, and sitcoms. In January 1969, they released their very first original talk show, named The Helen MacGregor Show, which was hosted by Helen MacGregor. On November 29, 1970, they released an original television sitcom, Our House, which was aired for only 20 episodes. Since then, the station continued airing original programs which gradually increased their audience rate.

They started broadcasting in color on January 17, 1972.

Despite their success, they were temporarily shut down on September 23, 1972, when Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in the Philippines.

1972: Martial law
On September 23, 1972, Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in the Philippines. Most media stations were shut down, including MegaManila Television. Fortunately, they were one of the few television stations at the time that was granted permission to broadcast. They relaunched later on November 1, 1972.

1972-1979: Launch of National; improved and organized programming
When they relaunched, their audience rate was incredibly low, and the station has not gained attention unlike its success before martial law. It was because many people thought that the station was likely closed because of martial law, when most media was shut down. The two founders decided to launch Bentos Broadcasting Company (now National), on August 23, 1973, which broadcasts and distributes MegaManila Television's shows nationwide on channel 3, since Kanlaon Broadcasting System (now RPN/CNN Philippines) was already broadcasting on the channel 9 frequency nationwide. RBC advertises itself as "a television distributor of MegaManila Television", which helped the station slightly increase its audience. However, the two founders does not want RBC to just be a distributor of their other television's shows, so they started airing original programming on a separate programming block.

On August 27, 1973, they premiered MMEducation, which features daily educational programs for elementary and high-school students.

On September 2, 1973, MegaManila Television made history for the first animated television series in the Philippines, when they aired Lorenzo and Danielle. MegaManila Television later aired several original animated television series, most of which are created by cartoonist, Remy de Los Santos.

Since 1976, they created and aired several animated television shows and sitcoms, which their audience rate is starting to increase once again. In the same year, MegaManila Television released an anthology entertainment television series, Entertainment on Nine with music concerts (MegaManila Television Music), feature films (MegaManila Feature Presentation), short films (MegaManila Television Featurettes), and Sunday television specials and/or movies (MegaManila Television Sunday Specials).

On November 23, 1977, the television network implemented 24-hours-a-day schedule, when they launched TeleRadio, a midnight programming block which plays music of different genres (usually pop and rock music) that viewers can suggest by calling the phone number appearing in their screen. It usually airs every 11:45 in the evening, until 4:30 in the morning.

On January 13, 1979, several animated shorts from independent cartoonists and animators were shown before a specific station ID and the television program.

1979-1997: Success of animated and live-action shows; broadcast expansion to United States
On December 30, 1979, Rover, an animated comedy-drama television series, was premiered on both MegaManila Television and National Television. It was not as popular in its debut season, but has gotten very popular as the series goes on. Piano Picker, a live-action television sitcom was premiered on March 10, 1980, which was widely acclaimed by viewers of the station, and calling it the best television show made by the station. The audience rate of the station skyrocketed from 1.7% to 27.19%, the highest audience rate climb of the channel. Several sitcoms have been made by the station between 1980 and 1986, was incredibly popular and successful. Several game shows, talk shows, competitions, and musical concerts appeared in the network. During that time, all animated and live-action shows are on the same programming block called, MegaManila9 Prime-Time Shows. On September 25, 1980, MegaManila Television expanded its broadcast area into the West Coast of the United States, after building several transmitters there. On November 17, 1982, They started broadcasting in the whole United States.

In 1986, Cartoonist and animator Remy de Los Santos took a 2-year hiatus from producing animated television shows. As a result, the animation department needs several other animators to continue its legacy of original animated television programming. The most notable one being B.S. Lee, a South Korean-American artist and animator, who made Paid Actors, an animated sitcom which aired between 1987 and 1990. Several animated sitcoms later emerged from the station, the most notable shows were: Roommate (1989), Ordinary Things (1991), Heather (1992). Live-action shows became more popular in the network, most notable ones were: television drama Tulips (1987), sketch comedy show Human Family (1987), anthology romantic series, High-School Romance (1994), etc. The most popular animated television show in the network was Separated Best Friends, which premiered in 1991. It was a prequel to the series finale of Rover, which ended in a cliffhanger.

On December 31, 1997, it was announced that they will be rebranding, but will still retain its programming.

1998-2013: as MegaManila Network; rebirth of successful sitcoms; transition to digital
On January 1, 1998, they relaunched as MegaManila Network. After the rebranding, they started airing indie films and short films in a 3-hour programming block, called Indie Film Night on 9. In 2001, MegaManila Network released a television documentary series, Influence, which covers several sports features, daily lives of Filipinos, various types of businesses, cuisines, and culture.

After the rebranding of the network, the original sitcoms of the station were neither as popular nor as successful than before, as people started pointing out the inconsistencies of its programs. That is until on November 27, 2005, Cuisine, a live-action sitcom about a failing restaurant was premiered. It was created by Helen Corey, and the recurring actors are Corey's colleagues from drama school. It was widely acclaimed by viewers and critics alike, which spawned several successful sitcoms later on. Animated sitcoms later resurfaced in 2012 with the debut of Isolated, which is the first animated sitcom to be broadcast in 1080p display.

On November 25, 2011, they launched a digital counterpart of the network, named, MegaManila Network HD.

In December 2012, the television network advertised another rebranding for the television station, for their digital counterpart.

2013-2017: Relaunch as 9tv; launch of 92
On August 25, 2013, MegaManila Network is relaunched as 9tv. Most of their programs are resized to 16:9 resolution, while the analog counterpart stays the same.

On November 11, 2015, 92 was launched exclusively for cable and satellite television. The television network's programming is targeted towards teens and adults between the age of 15 and 27.

On December 3, 2017, 9tv released Rover and Max, which is the final prequel to the successful 1991 television series, Separated Best Friends.

2017-present: End of analog broadcast, relaunch as Mega Broadcasting Network (MBN)
On December 21, 2017, they broadcast a countdown after a sign-off about their analog broadcast coming to an end. On December 31, 2017, the last 5 minutes of the television station was a countdown and was shown after the television closedown and new year special. At 12:01 a.m. of January 1, 2018, MBN was launched.

Several changes has been made during its relaunch:


 * Entertainment on Nine initially ended on December 29, 2017, two days after the analog station's shutdown. It was resurrected as a programming block on the station's relaunch on January 1, 2018.
 * Since MegaManila9 Prime-Time Shows ended on August 25, 2013, MBN resurrected the programming block as two separate ones: MBN Animation Prime-Time, for animated television shows and MBN Prime-Time Television, for live-action shows.
 * The station now plays music during sign-ons and sign-offs with maximum 3 songs, before transitioning to its TeleRadio programming block.
 * A programming block was launched specifically for imported programming, which airs every 4:50 in the morning. The first show to air on the programming block was the 1978 sitcom, WKRP in Cincinnati.

On April 25, 2021, the station was renamed to MBN3.

Programming
Main article: List of programs aired by MBN3

Majority of the programs shown on the network are created by their own entertainment division. Most of their original programs include sitcoms, variety shows, musicals, documentaries, feature stories, talk shows, and television drama. Between September 2003 until December 2017, they only showed their own original programming, On their relaunch on January 1, 2018, they launched a programming block to separate their original programming from imported ones.

Human Family "Gay Neighbor" episode, 1993
On a January 3, 1993 episode of satirical sitcom Human Family, the "Gay Neighbor" episode featured negative stereotypes of gay people which led to their ultimate demise. A lot of people were disappointed about the episode, as it was the most popular show during their time. Over 900 people phoned the network about the episode. They criticized the network for letting the controversial episode pass the censors. Human Family's final episode was intended to air on February 21, 1993, but due to the controversy, this turned out to be their last as the entertainment division of the network immediately cancelled the program a day later. The network later apologized for being oblivious about the episode being broadcast.

The eight episodes that was supposed to air between January 10 and February 21 remained unknown for years, until it was broadcast on November 6, 2017, as a television special called The Unaired Episodes of Human Family. The reception of the final episodes turned out to be favorable, but was disappointed at the fact that they didn't get the opportunity to be broadcast due to their 'unintentional' final episode. On December 22, 2019, they announced that they will rerun the show on January 5, 2020, that will include its unaired episodes, except for the January 3, 1993 episode.