MBN12

MBN 12 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 MBN12.

DWMT-TV
Between July 28 - December 29, 1957, they launched an unnamed experimental television station (unofficially named Test Nine), whose call sign is DWMT-TV, that broadcasts on channel 9. It was funded by universities in Manila, which aired educational programs, music contests and plays performed by students. They relaunched the station on September 19, 1959. They closed the station on February 21, 1961 after not having enough funding for the station.

South Luzon Broadcasting
After their unsuccessful television station was closed, they launched another experimental television station, named South Luzon Broadcasting, on September 14, 1963. They only aired imported entertainment programs on its entire lifespan. They were short-lived however, closing on April 11, 1964, after airing for 8 months. This would later be succeeded by MegaManila Television.

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 August 17, 1969, they premiered their first original drama series, Snowbird. 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; and broadcast expansion
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. On January 31, 1984, they started broadcasting in the whole Philippines, which created an opportunity for National to broadcast even more original programming.

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 with 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, with the inauguration of its new CEO, Norman de Guzman, MegaManila Network was rebranded as 9tv. Most of their programs are resized to 16:9 resolution, while the analog counterpart stays the same. Initial reactions of the launch was mixed to the viewers, with people criticizing its new programs as being sub-par and unoriginal.

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, Norman de Guzman resigned from being the CEO of the network. He was replaced by Carlos Gracias three days later. 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. National began distributing MBN's programs again, since they are still broadcasting in analog (until the supposed.

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, as Entertainment on Three.
 * Since MegaManila9 Prime-Time Shows ended on August 25, 2013, MBN resurrected the programming block as two separate ones: MBN Animated Television, 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 MBN 12.

Programming
Main article: List of programs aired by MBN 12

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.

Schedule
This is MBN's current schedule since April 29, 2021.

Legends
{{legend|#9E9E9E|Sign-on/Signoff}}

MBNews Segments:

{{legend|#65ECFF|Breakfast Television}} {{legend|#6FC4FF|Good Morning Philippines}} {{legend|#6F96FF|News@12}} {{legend|#438DFF|Nighttime News}}

Entertainment on Three Segments:

{{legend|#FF8686|MBN Feature Presentation}} {{legend|#FF5555|MBN Featurettes}} {{legend|#FFAF55|MBN Sunday Specials}} {{legend|#FF9823|MBN Specials}} {{legend|#61BD51|MBN Music}}

Assassination of Jorge Nashville, 1971
Main article: Assassination of Jorge Nashville On August 22, 1971, During an interview between Filipino-American 38-year-old journalist and conspiracy theorist, Jorge Nashville and 29-year-old television host Helen MacGregor, on a live television episode of the Helen MacGregor Show, an unknown person from the crowd shot Jorge Nashville in the head and Helen MacGregor in her shoulder and arm.

During the interview, many people from the audience started shouting over Nashville, when he started criticizing Ferdinand Marcos's presidency. Helen MacGregor asked the audience to calm down, until one person in the audience has had enough and immediately shot both of them. The cameras were covered for a few seconds before the live broadcast was immediately cut to black. An intermission card later appears, which marks the first time the card appears on-screen. Five minutes later, it was immediately cut to the MMNews program to cover the incident. The news about the incident was spread nationwide, by fellow television stations and print media. It was reported that Helen MacGregor managed to survive the incident, while Jorge Nashville was announced dead on arrival. The perpetrator was then revealed to be Gerald Gonzales, which later committed suicide in his own cell almost two weeks later. The television station was criticized for the assassination which thousands of people saw on television, most of which were left traumatized, which they later apologized for it.

Jorge Nashville was controversial for launching his own newspaper in 1969 to the public named, The Filipino Truth, that is constantly giving false information, which angered many Filipinos. Shortly after his assassination, the newspaper ceased its publications.

The recording of the assassination used to be lost, but was later confirmed by people who were working for the station that they have it archived, but they wouldn't want to show it to the public. Instead, they only uploaded the cameras being covered during the sixth and final shot of the .357 revolver (which was heard in the background), the intermission card, and the news coverage of the MMNews.

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.