THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 6, 1994 TAG: 9411040098
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
IMAGINE LIFE without ``60 Minutes,'' ``Seinfeld'' or ``Home Improvement.'' Unthinkable.
Imagine life without Vilma. Also unthinkable . . . if you are Filipino.
When Filipinos relocate in the United States - Hampton Roads is home to thousands of families with roots in the Philippines - they leave behind family, friends, culture and Vilma plus everyone else they've been watching on TV shows originating in Manilla.
Vilma, the lovely one, hosts a variety show that comes on Saturday night at 6. Think of her as Carol Burnett with sex appeal. Filipino TV is very big on variety shows.
Until lately, life in the United States was life without Vilma, Betty and the Beast, Kate and Boogie, Billy Bilyonario and others seen on TV in the Philippines.
That's all changed now. A Chicago-based company, RCT International, has launched the 24-hour-a-day Filipino channel.
It's called Filsat, and it's available in Hampton Roads.
The Galaxy 7 satellite in orbit miles above the earth beams Filsat to North America. Filipinos will recognize it as Channel 7, GMA, originating in Manila. To receive it, you need hardware that includes a 3-foot satellite dish.
The cost is $699, which includes a year of programming from GMA.
Some original programming will be produced for Filsat in Los Angeles. The list of subscribers in Hampton Roads is about a dozen and growing, said Bessie Mabutas, account executive at the RCT International offices in Virginia Beach. Her number is 424-1700.
She's been in the United States less than five years and admits to being homesick for the TV she grew up watching in the Philippines.
Do you miss seeing Vilma, I asked? ``I did,'' she said.
Note the past tense.
There's a great big TV monitor next to her desk at the RCT International offices on Indian River Road which brings in Filsat (and Vilma) anytime Mabutas wants to beam it in. Filsat is a pastiche of variety shows, sitcoms, talk shows, drama, sports, gossip-filled hours and news. ``GMA Balita.''
In a neighborly gesture, Mabutas splits the signal from Filsat and sends the pictures next door to Philippine Imports where Ligaya Francisco watches ``Tanghalan Ng Kampeon,'' ``Brigada Siete,'' ``Pugad Baboy'' and the other programming when she isn't selling rice cakes or other Filipino delicacies in her store.
Where else can you see thriving banana trees in Virginia Beach?
Francisco enjoys Filsat immensely, she said.
Life without Vilma? Never again.
The Asian Broadcasting Network in cooperation with RCT International in 1995 plans to launch channels programmed in Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian and in Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese. When RCT International and ABN realized scant hope of finding space on cable systems in the United States - the cable carriers have tightened up in the wake of government re-regulation - they went into the satellite TV business.
Early this year, in 10 markets in America, the companies made their first pitch to America's large Filipino population.
``We aim to attract the large pocket of highly educated, affluent people of Filipino extraction throughout North America,'' said Filsat spokesman Jeff Urdank in Studio City, Calif.
And make money.
Filsat enables advertisers half a world away to reach the Filipino consumer in the United States. RCT International's research shows that 834,000 TV households in the United States are Filipino.
Filsat. It's the ultimate speciality niche programming for the 1990s.
It has 28-year-old Elmer Hipolito interested. Hipolito, who operates a video rental store in Virginia Beach, has been hanging out at Mabutas' office, watching Filipino culture pouring out of Filsat. He's also homesick for TV the way it was when he was growing up in the Philippines.
Life without Vilma? It doesn't have to be that way, Elmer. by CNB