DWCP-DTV (channel 21) is a television station in Metro Manila, Philippines, serving as the flagship of the SolarFlix network. The station is owned by Southern Broadcasting Network, a subsidiary of Solar Entertainment Corporation. Its studios are located at the Third Floor Worldwide Corporate Center, Shaw Boulevard corner EDSA, Mandaluyong, while its hybrid digital transmitting facility is located at the Solar Entertainment Complex, along Nuestra Señora Dela Paz Subdivision, Barangay Sta. Cruz, Antipolo, Rizal.[1]

DWCP-DTV
Sagot ka namin!
CityMandaluyong
Channels
BrandingSolar Flix TV-21 Manila
Programming
SubchannelsSee list
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerSouthern Broadcasting Network
(a subsidiary of Solar Entertainment Corporation)
History
FoundedMay 30, 1992; 32 years ago (1992-05-30)
Former call signs
DWCP-TV (1992–2019)
Former channel number(s)
  • Digital:
    22 (UHF, 2015–2019)
Technical information
Licensing authority
NTC
PowerDigital: 3 kW
Transmitter coordinates14°36′21.5″N 121°10′13.9″E / 14.605972°N 121.170528°E / 14.605972; 121.170528

DWCP-TV became the first local UHF TV station in Metro Manila that began broadcast in May 1992 as World TV 21. It operates daily from 8:00am to 12:00mn on terrestrial television, with programming available 24 hours daily across cable and satellite providers.

History

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Southern Broadcasting Network of Davao launched SBN Channel 21, the first local UHF TV station in Metro Manila since 1992. It was then known as Classic 21 under the helm of ABS-CBN and World TV 21 by Kampana Television Corporation, which provided programming content from ABC, CNN and ESPN on this channel then. The idea is to bring back programming similar to the forcibly shut-down FEN Channel 17 of the former Clark US Air Base a year earlier due to the Eruption of Mt. Pinatubo

Beginning on January 1, 2008, Solar Entertainment began to lease airtime on SBN, choosing to broadcast programming from its entertainment channel ETC.[2] This partnership ended on March 2, 2011, as Solar transferred ETC to RPN. As a result, SBN renewed partnership with Solar Entertainment to create the news network Talk TV. On October 30, 2012, the channel was renamed as the Solar News Channel.

On December 1, 2013, SNC's programming was moved to RPN for wider national coverage, with ETC returned to SBN a day before.

In 2015, SBN ceased using its old analog transmitter tower at the Strata 2000 building in Pasig (which was obvious to consider even after Solar's purchase of SBN due to the old Sign-on and Sign-off sequences) and began using Solar's newly constructed tower located in Antipolo for a clearer and better signal reception in both the analog and digital signals.

As of September 12, 2019, SBN closed down its analog signal in favor of digital TV broadcast.

Areas of coverage

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Primary areas

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Secondary areas

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Technical information

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SBN launched its digital television broadcast in 2015, alongside another digital signal from Byers Communications. Solar Entertainment supplies its DTV channels through the new platform, allowing the company to launch the Easy TV DTT service. For unknown reasons, the transmitter's encryption system was activated throughout its run, making two of the station's subchannels receivable only on set-top boxes with this capability. The technical issue was fixed by September 25, 2017.

The station remained on the air, despite Easy TV's close of operations on September 30, 2019.

Digital television

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Subchannels

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DWCP-TV operates on UHF Channel 21 (515.143 MHz), and is multiplexed into the following subchannels:

Channel Video Aspect Short name Programming Note
21.02 480i 16:9 SolarFlix SolarFlix (Main DWCP-DTV programming) Test Broadcast
21.03 Solar Sports Solar Sports
21.04 DepEd ALS Solar Learning (DepEd TV ALS)
21.05 Shop TV Shop TV

Analog-to-digital transition

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DWCP-TV terminated its analog signal on UHF channel 21, on September 12, 2019, as preparation for the Philippines' transition to digital terrestrial television. The station then flashcut its digital signal from its pre-transition channel 22 to the analog-era channel 21 for post-transition operations.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ TV Stations in the Philippines
  2. ^ "ETC Available on SBN 21". Archived from the original on February 9, 2012. Retrieved November 3, 2012.