VGC (company)

VGC Inc. is a Philippine diversified multinational entertainment and mass media conglomerate headquartered at One VGC Plaza in Parañaque City, Philippines.

VGC was originally founded on August 10, 1925 by journalist Eduardo "Ka-Eddy" Villena as the Manila Post Company in order to organize business decisions regarding its newly-opened Manila Post newspaper, and later operated under the name Villena Group of Companies, Inc. before the name was simplified as VGC Inc. in 1973. The company established itself as a leader in the worldwide news business before diversifying in radio, television, film production, and music labels.

Since the 1930s, PostCo/VGC created and acquired corporate divisions in order to diversify its business. The company is known for its news and publishing division, which includes the broadcast-oriented VGC News group, as well as newspapers including The Manila Post, The West Visayas News, Helsinki-Posti, and The Perth Sun. VGC's other main business units include divisions in broadcasting, television, streaming media, consumer products, film production, and international operations. Through these various units, VGC owns and operates the VGC broadcast network, VGC International Networks, which includes subscription television channel VGC Family, news channels VGCN and VGC Business, and international subscription networks including VGC Movies, VGC Sportsnet, and the Dish satellite network in Asia; its cable and satellite service unit, VGC Music Group, VGC Experiences and Products, direct-to-consumer service CVplay, a joint venture between VGC (65%), Central Communications (33%) and the BBC (2%); and VGC Studios, which primarily owns the Everest Pictures movie studio.

The company, which trades on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) under VGC stock symbol and the Nasdaq Stock Market under US.VGC stock symbol, has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1985. Almost 100% of the company's stock is owned by the Villena family and its relatives under the Legazpi Holdings Group.

Early days
On August 10, 1925, journalist Eduardo "Ka-Eddy" Villena founded the Manila Post Company, coinciding with the first issue of The Manila Post. The Post thrived locally, to the point where the paper was converted into a national newspaper in 1929. The Post later acquired a second newspaper, The Cebu Journal when it was purchased from Australian journalist James Edward Davidson's News Limited. The Post expanded overseas through the first issue of The Perth Sun in Perth, Australia in 1931; and the acquisition of Helsinki-Posti (The Helsinki Post) from the family of Christian Ludvig Hjelt (founder of the oldest Swedish language paper Åbo Underrättelser) in 1932.

World War II
The Post was already experimenting with remote transmissions before the Second World War, when it experimented with a broadcast from Finland (via the aforementioned Helsinki-Posti newspaper) being transmitted to a "link" before being fed into the Philippines. The paper used that to its advantage when Japan took over the Philippines in 1942. Before departing in exile in Perth, Australia (which has the same time zone as pre-Japan Philippines), there was already some measures taken that are today considered controversial and shady. When the Japanese under Emperor Hirohito took over most radio stations and were utilized for propaganda purposes, the Villenas personally purposefully labeled their transmitting antenna as a backup transmission tower for "Philippine Islands AM" (formerly and later occupied by KZRH/DZRH before moving to 666 kHz in 1978) and 'secretly' installed backup AM and shortwave antennas in order to transmit the first broadcast of "Radio Post". An affiliate of CBS Radio, Radio Post was considered to be the Second Republic's only opposition station, and one that the Japanese cannot reasonably take over.

Post-war rehabilitation
While its overseas newspapers continued to generate profits, the Manila Post Company was losing money because its unused media complex in Parañaque City was severely damaged during the war and incurred a large amount of debt to rebuild it in just a few months into what is now the VGC Complex (formerly Parañaque Centre), with One VGC Plaza as the company's headquarters; the Post, then as now, continues its publications from Manila. After the Philippines was declared an independent country, the Manila Post Company reorganized itself as Villena Group of Companies in order to properly structurize its assets between domestic and foreign interests. Radio Post began interchangeably use its call letters in its branding: KZVC (now DZVC). VGC later launched its namesake television network in 1948.

Expansion to North America and Europe
The aforementioned Helsinki-Posti newspaper helped form VGC's media empire in Europe, first with radio station Radioposti, then with TV-Posti, which shortly became TVS, and is currently Finland's most-watched TV channel.

However, VGC also expanded in the United States terrestrial television market, which was possible because the Villena family held dual citizenship in the US and the Philippines; by way of acquiring radio station KXB in Sacramento from NBC in 1947, giving VGC a name for itself as it has owned one of America's first radio stations. However, VGC's foray into television was in the Villena family's personal US residence of West Pittsburg (now Bay Point), currently part of the San Francisco television market. While VGC initially wanted the KXB-TV call letters, the FCC instead assigned the KXBT-TV call letters (prohibiting radio and TV stations licensed to different cities to share the same callsign, and the station signed on the air on channel 8 in 1951. VGC later purchased radio station KGBC from the Grant family, relocated it to adjacent Pittsburg, and changed its call letters to KXBT in honor of the television station. In 1964, due to its transmitter not reaching some parts of the Bay Area, KXBT opened a satellite station, KVGC, on UHF channel 23, in 1960. KXBT would later swap licenses with KVGC, and the channel 8 transmitter (under the old KVGC-23 license) was shut off in 1975, and channel 23, which operated under the old KXBT-8 license and changed its call letters to KVGC-TV following the swap, with KXBT-AM-FM changing its call letters to KVGC as well; remained as the sole TV station owned by the Villena family in the San Francisco DMA. KXBT/KVGC would later play a key role in the production of VGC's business program World Business Weekly, and then as now, remains as an independent station. KXB-TV would later sign on in the 1960s.

Martial Law in the Philippines, reorganization, and controversies
VGC's domestic operations were temporarily forced to shut down on September 23, 1972 with the declaration of Martial Law. Villena took it personally, publicly addressing that while he was personally friends with then-President Ferdinand Marcos, he was hurt by the decision to shut down the VGC TV and radio network. Villena personally criticized the Marcoses for their handling of the situation.

"Unlike certain other outlets, I do not control the editorial coverage on my media outlets. What the President did today was very unacceptable. While I certainly do not collude with enemy forces, I also do not accept this order. If he is actually concerned about communist propaganda, then why are we affected?"

A few months later, the government restored VGC's licenses to broadcast. However, harassment to VGC employees generated a lot of controversy, not just on the government, but also at the company itself. Pro-Marcos media outlets accused Villena of blackmailing the government in order to bring back the operations. One alleged former staffer of the government accused him of 'threatening to shoot' the President as means of coercion. Even Marcos himself denied such allegations, saying that it was only an apology over 'mistaken connections.'

The loss of money incurred from the brief hiatus of the broadcast network caused a reorganization at the company. The company was renamed as VGC Inc., and a new family-run holding company, Legazpi Holdings Group, would manage VGC along with other subsidiaries that it deemed not fit under the same corporate roof. The Eduardo Villena Center for Media (a nonprofit institution) in Perth, Australia, as well as the Villena Research Institute and a holding company that provides funding for several educational institutions were separated from VGC. This spin-off, which is still controlled by the Villena family, also included the KXBT/KVGC and KXB stations, which were separated under the name KXB-KVGC Incorporated, which is now Legazpi Media Group.

VGC would later thrive during the Martial Law era, despite being critical of the administration, partly because the company was exempted from several regulations, including ones that prohibit foreign ownership of broadcast media, which helped VGC launch its IPO on both the Manila Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ stock market in New York City. The VGC network, as well as several other TV channels throughout the world, including TVS, TV Posuto, and VGC's terrestrial TV stations in Australia; were popular. In 1982, VGC would launch VGC32, Malaysia's first private TV channel.

From a news company to a media conglomerate
In 1985, VGC made a landmark acquisition when it purchased Everest Pictures Film Corporation from John K. Matthews, which included the Everest film studio, one of the major Hollywood studios. VGC was transformed from a news-centric broadcast giant to a large media conglomerate; despite being the youngest of all the major studios, Everest produces the most movies and shows, some of which were picked up by VGC-controlled outlets and the aforementioned KXB-KVGC company that purchased Everest's television stations after the studio's sale to VGC.