MANILA — A year since it was forced off free television, ABS-CBN has managed to still be a “major player,” according to veteran TV host Boy Abunda, as he expressed pride in the strides made by his home network despite the crisis.

Abunda, who has been a Kapamilya for 22 years since 1994, lauded ABS-CBN for successfully migrating to digital and cementing its leadership among Philippine media companies, online.

“Fantastic! We don’t have free TV, but we still create noise… Iconic ABS-CBN may be, but it certainly is a major player in the now. ABS-CBN is still in the race,” he said.

ABS-CBN was forced off free television in May 2020, when its application for the renewal of its franchise was left to expire in the House of Representatives. Its flagship platform, Channel 2, as well as its radio frequencies, were then shuttered for good on July 10, 2020, when a congressional panel voted to deny the network’s franchise application.

In the months that followed, ABS-CBN sought new platforms to continue serving Filipinos. Notably, it has forged blocktime partnerships to bring back its programs to free television, and inked deals to distribute content to a wider audience, through various streaming services.

ABS-CBN has bolstered its own iWantTFC with technical updates and original offerings, aside from housing the network’s past and current titles; and has made its programming more accessible online through Kapamilya Online Live, which live-streams daily via YouTube and Facebook.

“Proud ako sa performance ng ABS-CBN. I’m really proud,” Abunda said. “For whatever little we have, certainly, we’re doing it the best we can. And for this, I’m truly proud of ABS-CBN.”

‘MY HAPPY PLACE, MY SAFE SPACE’

Abunda had been hosting three ABS-CBN programs — “Tonight with Boy Abunda,” “The Bottomline with Boy Abunda” and “Inside the Cinema” — before the back-to-back crises of the coronavirus pandemic and the network’s franchise denial.

Abunda also managed the transition from television to digital. Aside from launching his own YouTube channel, Abunda started hosting his first full-fledged digital program, “The Best Talk” on ABS-CBN’s FYE Channel on Kumu, which recently wrapped its second season.

Dubbed local showbiz’s “King of Talk,” Abunda admittedly saw the migration as a daunting prospect at first, as he has long regarded television as “a happy, safe space for me.”

“I am television. My energy, my rhythm, my groove is very television. But that is not tantamount to saying that I am not willing to explore this dreadful place of social media. I am. I am bruised and scarred by the many wars I’ve been through in communications. I was sustained by television for all my life,” he said.

Referring to hosting virtual interviews, conducting webinars, and doing a show entirely virtually, Abunda added, “I have to learn how to do them, because that’s what the moment demands for now.”

“But given the choice, I will always go back to television,” he said. “My preference is television. I love television. But if this is what I have to do, because we cannot do television yet, because ABS-CBN was shut down, because we don’t have free TV, then so be it. It is what it is.”

THE ONLY WAY TO GO

Abunda started his career as a TV host in 1994, and then embarked on his journey as a Kapamilya in 1999, as the main host of the iconic talk show “The Buzz,” which ran for 16 years.

For over two decades, until 2020, Abunda hadn’t gone a month without being inside the ABS-CBN studios for a live telecast or a taping.

“Pag binilingan na ako ng ‘5, 4, 3, 2, 1,’ that’s my happy place — and I miss it,” he said, referring to the cue for going on air.

Abunda holds hope that the same countdown for the revival of ABS-CBN’s Channel 2 will soon come. “We have no other choice, I will be very honest. Wala naman tayong ibang espasyo but to be hopeful,” he pointed out.

“We have been pushed to the wall, and there is no other way but a little easier. Pinadapa na tayo, e. The law of gravity dictates that we should be rising. We should be rising slowly.

“We have been diminished too much, that the only way to go is to survive,” Abunda said.

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv