Starting January 2015, the newly rebranded 9TV that was used to be Solar News will be transforming to CNN Philippines. This was confirmed by Solar TV Network Inc. and BusinessMirror President Benjamin Ramos. The said partnership was made possible by the owner of the Radio Philippines Network (RPN9) Ambassador Antonio Cabangon-Chua who entered into a partnership with CNN of Time Warner Inc.
The news about the rebranding was first reported by Media Newser last October 8. It was less than 2 months when Solar News Channel was recently renamed 9TV following the acquisition of BusinessMirror owner Antonio Cabangon-Chua of a 34-percent stake in RPN-9, held by STVN’s Willy Tieng.
The concept of the CNN Philippines is to offer CNN International content for non-cable Filipino viewers. With this it directly competes with free TV news channel that are not cable based including GMA News TV and TV5’s Interaksyon. Meanwhile, ABS-CBN News Channel remains on cable.
Early 2013, the Malacanang plans to privatize RPN9 and another state-run network IBC 13. The RPN9’s franchise was estimated to cost P800 million while IBC 13’s physical assets and franchise were valued at P1.2 billion. The NBN 4 remains the main channel of thr government.
