BATIBOT Batibot is a childrens television program from the Philippines, based on Sesame Street. Premiering in 1984, with the name Sesame!, and eventually renamed Batibot several years later. Batibot in Filipino means small, but strong and robust. As Sesame!, the program used both English and Filipino as the media of communication, but after evolving into Batibot, the show became a completely Filipino language childrens educational show. It was produced by the Sesame Workshop (Childrens Television Workshop) and Philippine Childrens Television Foundation, Inc. (PCTVF). CTW broke this relationship with PCTVF in 1989. PCTVF was formed in 1984. It was organized by the same team that worked together on the Philippine Sesame Street Project (Sesame!) in 1983. The latter is a co-production with the U.S.s Childrens Television Workshop. Striking out on its own a year after, PCTVFs sole directive was to produce a television program for pre-school children that would supplement their education and at the same time make the children appreciative of their culture and heritage, resulting in the show called Batibot. Batibot was formerly a thirty-minute show. It aired from Monday to Friday, from 9:30 to 10:00 a.m., and used the magazine-on-television format, employing variety, humor, original Filipino music and stories, animation, black theater, muppets, short live action films and features. Batibot was broadcast nationwide from Monday to Friday on the Philippine television networks Radio Philippines Network (RPN) from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. and on Peoples Television Network (PTV) from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. In 1991, the show switched to ABS-CBN but switched back to RPN in 1994 after the former decided to produce its own set of children TV programs through the ABS-CBN Foundation. In 1995, PCTVF signed a contract with GMA Network and Batibot was shown at its original morning time slot. In 1996, Batibots TV audience started to decline. Rapid development of cable TV in the Philippines led to the popularity of youth-oriented channels like Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Disney Channel. Tough competition from ABS-CBN Foundation over its morning TV programs after airing foreign cartoons, and the loss of Pong Pagong and Kiko Matsing was a factor. PCTVF was forced to cease airing of Batibot a year later through the recommendation of its host network, GMA. It made a brief comeback in 1998 on RPN but was forced to cease again for the same reason.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 07:13:02 +0000
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