Hero was a 24-hour Philippine pay television channel created by ABS-CBN's narrowcast arm Creative Programs Inc. from 2005 to 2018. The programming was composed primarily of Filipino-dubbed Japanese anime series. It was dubbed as "The First and All Tagalog-dubbed Anime Channel in the Philippines." In February 2018, Hero was relaunched as a digital web portal operated byABS-CBN Digital Media, providing limited news content on anime, pop culture and gaming.
Background
Much of the content in the channel is attributed to the fact that Creative Programs' parent company ABS-CBN has produced numerous dubs of anime series many years before the launch of Hero, as well as maintained an Animax airing block for quite sometime. Aside from those, the channel also airs anime that have not yet seen in any terrestrial or cable channel shown in the Philippines prior to its first showing in the channel, such as Mirmo de Pon!. The channel also once featured anime series dubbed by Telesuccess, Inc., the supplier for most of the anime series aired on GMA Network, before transferring them all to TeleAsia. Some of these are Love Hina, Rune Soldier, and Shaman King. Others seen in the channel were previously shown in English on Cartoon Network's Philippine feed or, in the case of Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh, on government-controlled RPN 9. Furthermore, Hero TV featured re-dubs Examples of these are Mon Colle Knights, Metal Fighter Miku, Zenki, The Slayers, and Voltes V. In 2011, undubbed anime was introduced to the channel with accompanying Filipino-language subtitles, in the form of and the Initial DExtra Stage OVA. The reason for airing these two anime features in their original Japanese audio is unknown. Ever since its launch in 2005, Hero TV operated on a daily 18-hour-a-day schedule from 6 AM to 12 midnight during the first months of their operation. In April 2006, the channel expanded its operating hours to 20-hours, thus signing off at 2 AM of the following day. In 2011, Hero TV finally transitioned into a full 24-hour cable TV service. In the summer season of 2012, Hero TV starts to greatly increase its lineup of new anime titles beginning with Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, Naruto Shippūden, Hanasaku Iroha, and Shiki; as well as airing the first two series of the Sailor Moon franchise, and a more complete version of the Aniplex-produced Jigoku Shoujo. Except for Sailor Moon, Jigoku Shoujo and Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, all of these titles have never been aired on Animax before
On December 23, 2017, an Anime Pilipinas article stated that Hero TV will end its broadcast operations on January 31, 2018 due to lack of advertising support and change in business direction. This was further confirmed through a commercial that aired on the channel last January 16, 2018. During the final day of broadcast, January 31, Hero TV aired a Facebook live broadcast where its hosts and staffs shared great memories and thanked supporters. After airing a tribute video showing the past anime titles, local programs and events produced or sponsored by the channel, Hero TV signed off for the last time on February 1, 2018 at 12:04 AM, ending with a farewell message and the words "Hero Now Signing Off." On February 7, 2018, Hero is relaunched, demoted into a digital web portal handled by the Lifestyle team from ABS-CBN Digital Media, but will not carry anime titles nor establish an anime video-on-demand service. It will provide limited news content on anime, pop culture and gaming. In March 2018, Jeepney TV featured the Hero Zone as a two-hour weekend morning anime block, beginning with Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V and KonoSuba. The block was later discontinued in July 2018 to focus on local programming. Meanwhile, its sister stationYey! has limited airing of previous anime titles aired on Hero TV, while carrying the last remaining new anime titles on Yey! channel including Ace of Diamond, My Hero Academia, One-Punch Man, Doraemon , and the final season of Naruto Shippūden.
Previous programming
Non-anime programs
Although Hero TV markets itself as an "anime channel", some of the aired programs here were non-anime. They are Mission Odyssey and Shadow of the Elves, both produced by the Berliner Film Companie, and the tokusatsu or live-action shows The Gransazers, Masked Rider Ryuki, and Shaider.
