ABS-CBN Digital Media, commonly known as Digital Media Division, formerly known as ABS-CBN Interactive, is the
digital media
Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...
and
internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
division of
ABS-CBN
ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Television in the Philippines, Philippine Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast broadcast network, network tha ...
. It was formerly a separate company operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of ABS-CBN Corporation until 2013, when ABS-CBN Interactive, Inc. was merged to its parent. ABS-CBN Digital Media is responsible for overseeing all of ABS-CBN's internet and digital properties which include websites, mobile and web applications, social media accounts, and the distribution of ABS-CBN's contents (TV channels, audio channels, TV programs, films, music recordings, music videos, images, magazines, books, news, etc.) to digital and online space. ABS-CBN Digital Media has made many first in Philippine media, such as the first ever TV network website (ABS-CBN.com launched in 1995), the first ever Filipino news website (ABS-CBNnews.com launched in 1997), and the first Filipino video streaming website (
ABS-CBN Now! launched in 2003; now known as
IWantTFC
iWantTFC is a Filipino over-the-top content platform and production company owned and operated by ABS-CBN Digital Media, a division of ABS-CBN Corporation, formed in 2020 through the merger of two streaming services iWant and TFC Online. In ad ...
). In 2017, the company was the largest in digital media platforms in the Philippines.
History
ABS-CBN Digital Media was originally part of ABS-CBN's
IT department labeled as the Interactive Media Group (IMG). The group was formed and initiated by Victoria Ferro. After three years of business development and consistent production of new forms of digital media, the IMG was spun off to a separate subsidiary of the ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation. ABS-CBN Interactive, Inc. was formally incorporated in February 1999 with Victoria Ferro as Founder and Managing Director. By the time of incorporation, ABS-CBN Interactive had already pioneered many forms of digital media used today including live streaming and other mobile value added services. ABS-CBN Interactive was officially established to manage and grow ABS-CBN's digital presence and to monetize ABS-CBN's contents on cyberspace. Later that same year,
Carlo Katigbak
Carlo Joaquin Tadeo Lopez Katigbak (born April 24, 1970) is a Filipino executive and the current president and CEO of Philippine entertainment and giant media conglomerate, ABS-CBN Corporation.
Education
Katigbak attended Ateneo de Manila U ...
was appointed as the subsidiary's new Managing Director.
Together with its sister company's TV Production team, ABS-CBN Interactive's mobile business started out with the game show, ''
Game KNB?'' (pronounced as "Game Ka Na Ba?", literally "Are You Game?"), where TV audiences can join through their mobile phones. The company continued to offer mobile value-added services with content sourced from ABS-CBN and its subsidiaries as well as other third-party content companies. A java
mobile game
A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...
was also developed based on ''Game KNB?'' game show.
In 2005, ABS-CBN Interactive, in partnership with ABS-CBN Global Ltd., launched the award-winning and the first Filipino online video streaming service
TFC Now! This service allowed audiences around the world to watch ABS-CBN's programs anytime and anywhere via the internet.
ABS-CBN Interactive then formed a subsidiary, ABS-CBN Multimedia, Inc., to handle
MMORPG
A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game.
As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...
business. ABS-CBN Multimedia acquired licenses of online video games from abroad and marketed it in the Philippines as Get Amped. Some of the games offered by Get Amped include ''
Tantra Online'' created by Hanbitsoft of Korea, ''
Ragnarok Online
''Ragnarok Online'' ( ko, 라그나로크 온라인, marketed as ''Ragnarök'', and alternatively subtitled ''The Final Destiny of the Gods'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by Gravity based on the manhwa '' ...
'', ''
War Rock
''War Rock'' ( ko, 워록) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer first-person shooter made by the South Korean company, Dream Execution. The game is distributed as a free-to-play, a common form of freeware Software license agreement, EULA and ...
'', ''
Cronous Pilipinas'', and ''N-Age''. This service was later discontinued due to financial difficulties and poor reception.
In 2011, ABS-CBN Interactive, together with
Creative Programs and
SKYcable
Sky Cable (stylized as SKYcable) is a cable television service of Sky Cable Corporation in the Philippines. It covers areas across the country with both digital and analog cable services, and it has 700,000 subscribers, controlling 45% of t ...
, launched the Philippines' first user-generated interactive cable channel called
CgeTV
CgeTV was a user-generated video channel and current internet video-sharing website created by ABS-CBN Interactive. On cable, CgeTV aired exclusively on SkyCable Digital channel 72.
Programming
CgeTV Programs
* In Da Loop (also broadcast on ABS ...
. This channel was later discontinued due to the poor reception.
In 2008, ABS-CBN Interactive signed a five million dollar deal with the global social networking site
Multiply
Multiplication (often denoted by the cross symbol , by the mid-line dot operator , by juxtaposition, or, on computers, by an asterisk ) is one of the four elementary mathematical operations of arithmetic, with the other ones being additi ...
. The deal granted ABS-CBN Corporation to own as much as 5% of the global social networking site. This deal was proven to be fruitless as Multiply was later dissolved due to financial difficulties and the assets and property of the company redistributed.
In 2013, ABS-CBN Interactive, Inc. was merged to its parent ABS-CBN Corporation. ABS-CBN Interactive itself was later renamed as ABS-CBN Digital Media and is now overseen by Donald Patrick Lim as its Chief digital officer and Dennis Lim as the Head of Digital Media Services. Today, ABS-CBN Digital Media is responsible for overseeing all of ABS-CBN Corporation's websites and mobile applications. It is operated under the ABS-CBN Access segment of ABS-CBN Corporation headed by Antonio Ventosa.
ABS-CBN's official social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and
TikTok
TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes.
TikTok is an international version ...
(mainly
It's Showtime) are among the most influential in the Philippines. ABS-CBN Entertainment's YouTube channel is the first-ever Filipino content creator on YouTube to gained an aggregate views of 1 billion and the most viewed, most subscribed YouTube channel in Southeast Asia surpassing Thailand's
WorkpointTV. Among the social media accounts managed by ABS-CBN Digital Media are ABS-CBN Entertainment (ABS-CBN's main account across social media, with over 21 million likes and 31 million followers on Facebook, 1.6 million followers on Twitter, and with over 2.6 million followers on Instagram, over 36.7 million subscribers and over 44.1 billion views on YouTube), ABS-CBN News (over 7.6 million followers on Twitter; 19.2 million likes on Facebook; over 13 million subscribers and 8.4 billion views on YouTube),
ABS-CBN Starmusic (over 6.29 million subscribers and over 2.5 billion views on YouTube),
ABS-CBN Star Cinema (over 4.03 million subscribers and over 1.2 billion views on YouTube), ''
The Voice Kids Philippines
''The Voice Kids'' is a Philippine reality singing television competition on ABS-CBN. It premiered on May 24, 2014. A spinoff of The Voice of the Philippines, ''The Voice of the Philippines'', the series, like its parent show, is based on the or ...
'' (over 2.63 million subscribers and over 1.4 billion views on YouTube), ''
The Voice of the Philippines
''The Voice of the Philippines'' is a Philippine reality television singing competition on ABS-CBN. It is based on the reality singing competition ''The Voice of Holland'', which was originally created by Dutch television producer John de Mol ...
'' (with over 3.7 million likes on Facebook; over 903 thousand subscribers and over 542 million views on YouTube),
Myx
Myx (, stylized as MYX or myx) is a Philippine pay TV channel based in Quezon City, owned by Creative Programs Inc., a subsidiary of ABS-CBN Corporation. The channel is targeted to youth audiences and primarily airs music videos.
It was intr ...
(with over 7.5 million likes on Facebook; over 6.7 million followers on Twitter), and ''
It's Showtime'' (with over 11.2 million likes on Facebook). ABS-CBN.com, the official and the centralized website of ABS-CBN Corporation for all of its subsidiaries is currently one of the top websites in the Philippines and is the top Filipino website in the country.
Digital properties
Defunct or inactive products and services
*
CgeTV
CgeTV was a user-generated video channel and current internet video-sharing website created by ABS-CBN Interactive. On cable, CgeTV aired exclusively on SkyCable Digital channel 72.
Programming
CgeTV Programs
* In Da Loop (also broadcast on ABS ...
- was a user generated interactive cable channel.
*Get Amped/Amped Casual Games
** ''
Cronous Pilipinas''
** ''
Ragnarok Online
''Ragnarok Online'' ( ko, 라그나로크 온라인, marketed as ''Ragnarök'', and alternatively subtitled ''The Final Destiny of the Gods'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by Gravity based on the manhwa '' ...
''
** ''N-Age''
** ''
Tantra Online''
** ''
War Rock
''War Rock'' ( ko, 워록) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer first-person shooter made by the South Korean company, Dream Execution. The game is distributed as a free-to-play, a common form of freeware Software license agreement, EULA and ...
''
** select
PopCap Games
*
Multiply
Multiplication (often denoted by the cross symbol , by the mid-line dot operator , by juxtaposition, or, on computers, by an asterisk ) is one of the four elementary mathematical operations of arithmetic, with the other ones being additi ...
(5%) - was a global social networking site.
*PinoyCentral - the precursor of ABS-CBN Digital Media
References
6
FEED-BIE
External links
ABS-CBN.coment.ABS-CBN.comnews.ABS-CBNcomiWantTFC.comTFC.tvPush.com.phOneMusic.ph
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abs-Cbn Interactive
ABS-CBN Digital Media,
Software companies of the Philippines
Video game publishers
Assets owned by ABS-CBN Corporation
Mass media companies of the Philippines
Mass media companies established in 1999