Filipina launches ‘only English-language Asian American TV network’ in U.S.

Founder and CEO Faith Bautista’s ChimeTV offers a mix of modern general entertainment AAPI programming, over 70% of which is new to US TV audiences. HANDOUT

LOS ANGELES – A Filipina American-owned television network, self-described as “America’s only English language Asian American Pacific Islander entertainment TV network,” was launched Jan. 23 through Charter’s Spectrum TV Select Channel 147 in New York City, Los Angeles and 41 states.

ChimeTV hosted a launch event on Jan. 21 at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

Founder and CEO Faith Bautista’s ChimeTV offers a mix of modern general entertainment AAPI programming, over 70% of which is new to US TV audiences. This includes dramas, comedies, procedurals, food, travel, lifestyle, wellness, news, mixed martial arts and digital creator content.

A press release said Bautista didn’t have a TV set as a child growing up in the Philippines. When she was eight years old, she peeked through the window of her neighbor’s house to watch television for the first time. Fast forward five decades later, Bautista owns and operates a television network.

“As the only female Asian American TV Network owner and CEO, I pledge to work diligently to open the door for the AAPI creative community,” Bautista said in press statement.  “We, particularly women, are vastly underrepresented and even inappropriately portrayed in movies, on TV screens and behind the camera.”

Bautista also serves as the CEO of the National Diversity Coalition composed of community organizers, faith-based leaders, nonprofit directors and business owners “advocating for the voiceless and working collectively for greater financial equality and empowerment for underserved groups.”

She also currently serves on advisory boards of the FCC, CDFI, PG&E, Charter Communications, T-Mobile, City of San Diego, Frontier Communications, First Republic Bank, Royal Business Bank, California utilities and diversity council, and Filipino American Chambers of Commerce.

Asian-Americans’ disposable income was up 314% before Covid-19, yet, until now, there had been no cable television network delivered in English, available to entertain communities and provide a TV pipeline for advertisers.