Filipino TV to expand for growing Filipino-Canadian community

MARKHAM, Ontario – Filipino TV (FTV) will be expanded for the growing Filipino community across Canada, according to the largest distributor of third language television services, Ethnic Channels Group Limited (ECG).

Programming will be upgraded to include more locally produced content ranging from news, talk shows, documentaries, reality series, entertainment, comedy, travel, spiritual, music videos and concerts.

“Ethnic Channels Group is pleased to be offering a completely rebranded channel featuring vibrant and varied TV content that everyone in the Filipino-Canadian community will love,” said Slava Levin, ECG’s CEO and co-founder.

“In addition, for the first time in the history of the Filipino TV broadcasting in Canada, this channel will have programs made by and for Filipino-Canadians across all provinces.”

As part of the relaunch, FTV will partner with Filipino-Canadian communities across Canada to

produce compelling content from each province, which will be filmed locally.

This enriched content will add to FTV shows already filmed in ECG’s state-of-the-art in-house production facility in Markham, Ontario, featuring the Filipino-Canadian community.

FTV’s highly anticipated new additions also include daily children’s programming as well as shows in Tagalog appealing to millennials. For the first time in Canada, the channel will bring to its viewers spiritual programming from Iglesia Ni Cristo.

The growth of the Filipino community has been a priority for the government of Canada. According to government figures, in 2014, Canada welcomed more than 40,000 permanent residents from the Philippines, making the Philippines Canada’s top source country for permanent residen

In this same year, over 700,000 Canadian residents could trace their ancestry back to the Philippines, and a growing number of Filipino citizens were visiting family and friends in Canada, studying at Canadian colleges and universities, or immigrating to Canada as permanent residents.