SRBS Corporation

{{Corporation|title1=SRBS Corporation|image1=SRBS_logo1.webp|caption1=Logo since 2021|type=Public|industry=*Mass media
 * Entertainment|predecessor=*Narra Radio Corporation (1957-1960)
 * Regions Broadcasting Corporation (1957-1972)
 * Sunburst-Nationals (1978-1998)
 * The RBS Company (1986-1998)|founded=April 11, 1998 (merger established)|headquarters=RBS Broadcast Plaza, Brgy. South Triangle, Panay Ave., Quezon City|area_served=Worldwide|key_people=*Carl Armanio (Chairman of the Board)
 * Miles McIntyre-Dizon (President)
 * Carmela Rivera-Santos (Vice President)|revenue=₱87.34 billion (FY 2020)|number_of_employees=25,874 (FY 2019}|subsidiaries=}}SRBS Corporation (stylised as SRBS corporation.) is a Filipino multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation controlled and operated by media mogul Aurencio Armanio and is headquartered at the RBS Broadcast Plaza in Quezon City, Philippines. The company was formed from the merger of Sunburst-Nationals (owned by Rodolfo Tuazon) and The RBS Company (owned by the Armanios).

The company is owned by the Armanio family via a family trust with 42.5% ownership share. The company's main properties include film production and television assets, the SRBS Television Operations, which currently operates linear and non-linear televisions in the country (RBS channel 24, SCATV, streaming site CATCH+, and internet radio app RBS Radio Service), and the National Cable Company (operating the cable networks NMTV, Tolentino Broadcasting System, KoC, and Dyson TV). SRBS also has a dedicated international division that manages the international presence of its Filipino assets, which includes RBS International.

1957-1964: Regions Broadcasting Corporation
The RBS Company was founded on October 10, 1957, as the Narra Radio Corporation, by an English broadcaster and electronics technician, Gerald McIntyre, who previously worked at the British Broadcasting Corporation. McIntyre, together with his colleagues, Aurencio Armanio and Ybarra Santos, submitted paperwork to the Philippine Government on the approval of the Narra Radio Corporation's broadcasting franchise, which was subsequently approved. Together, they started DZNR on 810 kHz AM and hired a few of their friends to become as radio broadcasters in order to gain attraction to listeners.

In 1960, with enough manpower, they tried to venture to television broadcasting. NRC changed their name to the Regions Broadcasting Company or RBC (with 'Narra Radio Corporation' still being retained for their trade name). Although running on low resources, they were able to establish a TV tower by March 1964, and test broadcasts were fully commenced at the same month over on Channel 12. After weeks of test patterns, channel 12 was able to achieve full-blown broadcast on April 1964, featuring stage plays at the University of Santo Tomas. The television station was known as DZNR-TV.

1962-1967: Sunburst Studios
On July 11, 1962, The Martinez brothers, Barry and Arturo Martinez, formally launched a film production company at the heart of Quezon City, with the name Sunburst Film Productions and Distribution Company. Through the help of their wealthy family, the brothers were able to import the state-of-the-art cameras at that time, and hire actors, directors, and producers.

The company established a special training school. Junar Vegas, Ariel Frieda and Maria Angelita were among 13 young women “launched on the trail of film stardom” on September 3, 1966, when they each received a six-month contract with Sunburst after spending 18 months in the school. The contracts included a studio option for renewal for as long as seven years.

For five years since their inception, Sunburst enjoyed its rise to fame, being given the title as the 'Dark Horse of the Filipino Film Industry'.

1965-1972: National Electronics
In 1965, Rodolfo Tuazon established the National Electrics and Communication Services, also known as National Electronics. Its goal was to provide electrical equipment to power communities all over Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. He soon ventured to the fixed-line telephone service. With the help of PLDT in 1967, National Electronics manufactured telephones with a similar form-factor to the Western Electric model 500.

1972: Martial law era
When President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in September 1972, he placed all media firms at that time under military control. All media outlets who were deemed critical of his administration was shut down and sequestered. RBC's owned and operated channels and assets was effectively seized by the Ministry of Public Information and was integrated into government station owned by the Marcos administration at that time. The Narra Radio Corporation, as a network, ceased operations for the next 14 years, and its studios became the official base of operations for Trident Television Philippines.

Gerald McIntyre, the original founder of the network, was persecuted by the police force at that time, along with Aurencio Armanio and Ybarra Santos, for provoking a civil uprising and promoting Communist ideals through the media. His Reithian views which stemmed from his days as a BBC worker became the target of the administration at that time, pointing out that he is a "British nationalist with nothing better to do but to instigate violence and speak out his royalty to the Crown". Back in England, he was hailed as "the only saving grace of the oppressed Filipino nation" by the conservative newspapers.

Despite facing humiliation and arrest, he was able to hide at the remote parts of the Philippines, hoping that the iron grip that Martial Law currently has on the media will soften.

1978: Economic decline; Merger of Sunburst Studios and National Electronics
In 1978, following an economic decline under martial law imposed by then President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., Sunburst Studios underwent a hiatus on producing films. They soon shifted their focus from family-oriented genres of film to more mature themes in order to compete with the rise of Filipino film studios at that time. They turned their heads to National Electronics, where it has been struggling against PLDT's monopoly on the telephone industry.

The martial law at that time took a heavy toll on National Electronics, due to the fact that Marcos issued a directive on all private telephone companies to merge into PLDT. In order to avoid persecution, National Electronics stopped its telephone manufacturing business and tried its hands on providing power grid equipment to the National Power Corporation at that time. It was even offered an agreement to become an attached government agency, but they prevented it.

Barry Martinez, the president of Sunburst Studios, contacted Rodolfo Tuazon and was offered a merger of their assets into a single entity. Martinez reportedly told Tuazon that the merger is 'to benefit our workers and our stakeholders'. Having no other choice since most of National Electronics' shareholders have pulled out since the decline, Tuazon agreed on the offer.

On November 11, 1979, Sunburst Studios acquired National Electronics, with Tuazon being brought up as one of the shareholders of the film company. At that time, the corporate name was simply Sunburst Media, but they soon adopted the Sunburst-Nationals name instead, with Sunburst Studios being kept as the film production division of the company.

1980: Formation of Trident News
In 1980, Trident Television Philippines, now a 100% state broadcaster, launched Trident News, an operational news division of the said network for channel 24. This was done in order to compete with other government channels' (like RPN and IBC) newscasts and to comply with an official directive from the Committee for Television Broadcasting, which orders them to provide a news division that will be apparent from the regional networks that was relying on the Philippine News Agency at that time. While they are a government-owned and controlled corporation, Trident frequently received numerous letters from the CTB that are mostly threats involving matters of broadcasting. This mounting pressure was the catalyst of sentiments within the network to be independent from government control.

Around the same time, McIntyre successfully fled the Philippines in fear of red-tagging and persecution by the government. He also gave his remaining share of the RBC at that time away to Aurencio Armanio, his co-founder and his long-time friend. He returned to the BBC as an electronics technician within the Broadcasting House, despite receiving advices from the Board about his deteriorating mental health. According to a BBC Board member, McIntyre had "the determination... the resolve to commit to public service, albeit he has faced threats from a government already". He was also offered the role of a Director-General because of his undying faith to impartiality, but he declined.

Back in the Philippines, the threats that kept on coming from CTB about being taken off the air should Trident Television maintain its iron fist on fairness had reached the Ministry of Public Information. The outgoing minister, Francisco Tatad, advised that the matter should be taken to the Supreme Court of the Philippines to settle the dispute, but the CTB was determined to take it into their own hands.

This repeated altercation between the two governmental bodies had reached its boiling point, when the head of the CTB, Mario Amarillo, ordered its license was revoked and that Trident Television had no rights to broadcast on channel 24. The television network then launched a 20-minute documentary attacking CTB's activities and its line of abuse to regional TV networks. The CTB did not back down from its actions, as it ordered the Philippine Constabulary to take over the offices of Trident Television. But just as it was about to break the doors of its headquarters, the Philippine president at that time, Ferdinand Marcos, cancelled the planned raid, and had ordered the CTB to "leave the room with a shut mouth". Trident Television was soon promoted as an attached agency of the Philippine Government, receiving immunity against the Committee.

Despite the protection it received, the writers and journalists of Trident News wanted to be independent. This is not what they wanted, because they believed that it made the government control more of what it should output on TV, radio, and tangible media.