smninewschannel.com
The SMNI News Channel, along with its online arm smninewschannel.com, is the most controversial among rising media outlets. It does not consider itself part of mainstream media, and since 2016, its content has predominantly favored former president Rodrigo Duterte and his allies.
According to Reuters’ Digital News Report for 2023, the smninewschannel.com shares the 11th spot with BuzzFeed News and MSN News among top news websites being used by Filipinos on a weekly basis. Twelve-percent of 2,284 survey respondents said they use the website every week.
Aside from television and online, Swara Sug Media Corporation (SSMC), owner of the Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI), also publishes weekly newspapers and operates seven radio stations.
However, SSMC is now indefinitely suspended from broadcasting on radio and television after it allegedly violated the 30-day Dec 19, 2023 preventive suspension order of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). Despite the NTC suspension, SSMC continued broadcasting via its online platforms.
An inquiry into the claim by one of SMNI’s hosts regarding the excessive travel expenses of House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez led to the House committee on legislative franchise unearthing of the channel’s alleged franchise violations during a series of hearings last December 2023.
Its alleged franchise violations include the deliberate dissemination of false information and red-tagging of groups and individuals and flouting the constitutional prohibition on media monopolies since SSMC is 99.68% owned by the “Executive Pastor of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, Inc.”
The ultimate owner of SSMC is the corporation sole “Executive Pastor of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, Inc.”, which owns 53.46% of the company’s stocks. The “Executive Pastor of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, Inc.” also owns 97% of Phoebus Capital Holdings Inc., the second top stockholder of SSMC, with a 46.22% stake in the company.
SMNI founder and self-proclaimed “appointed son of God” Apollo C. Quiboloy is known as the executive pastor of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, but despite the title, the SSMC legal counsel denied his ever being the owner of the media company.
Audience Share
12%
Ownership Type
Private
Geographic Coverage
National
Content Type
Free content
Media Companies / Groups
Swara Sug Media Corporation
Ownership Structure
The Executive Pastor of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, Inc., a corporation sole, is the parent company of the Swara Sug Media Corporation.
As of Dec. 12, 2023, the official website of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ still names Apollo C. Quiboloy as its executive pastor. However, Swara Sug Media Corporation counsel Mark Tolentino said that Quiboloy has been replaced as executive pastor by a certain Marlon Acobo in December 2022.
Voting Rights
Missing Data
Individual Owner
Group / Individual Owner
Jesus Christ Workers Members Cooperative
There’s not much publicly available information about Jesus Christ Workers Members Cooperative. It does not appear in the 2023 masterlist of the Cooperative Development Authority.
However, it appears that the cooperative is related to the Executive Pastor of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, Inc. and Phoebus Capital Holdings Inc. because their addresses are all located at the compound of the Quiboloy-led Kingdom of Jesus Christ in Catitipan, Davao City, Davao del Sur.
In a 2016 article, the Philippine Daily Inquirer cited a similar organization called “Jesus Christ Workers and Members Cooperative” being involved in the alleged land-grabbing of Quiboloy and his Christian religious sect. Quiboloy’s followers denied the accusation saying a group of Lumad (an indigenous people in Mindanao) who lived in the acquired area turned over their land rights to “Jesus Christ Workers and Members Cooperative” in exchange for cash or goods from the cooperative.
General Information
Founding Year
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Affiliated Interests Founder
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Affiliated Interests Ceo
is the president and chairman of the board of directors of Swara Sug Media Corporation.
Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief
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Affiliated Interests other important people
is the founder of Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI) and the former executive pastor of the Davao-based religious group Kingdom of Jesus Christ until December 2022. He is on the most wanted list of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation due to his alleged involvement in the sex trafficking of children and engaging in sex with female members of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, among other charges.
is a reporter and anchor at SMNI News Channel. She is also a member of the board of directors of Swara Sug Media Corporation, and a “full time worker” at Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Contact
Makati office: ACQ Tower, Sta. Rita St. Guadalupe Nuevo, Makati City
Telephone No.: (02) 8836-7324
Davao Office: JC Compound Phil–Japan Friendship Highway Catitipan, Davao City, Philippines
Financial Information
Revenue (in Mill. $)
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Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
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Advertising (in % of total funding)
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Market Share
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Further Information
Meta Data
Audience share for the smninewschannel.com is not available after it failed to reach the minimum threshold set by Nielsen’s Consumer and Media View survey. However, the 2023 Digital News Report of Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism indicated the website is in the top 15 news websites being used on a weekly basis by Filipinos.
The market share of smninewschannel.com cannot be computed due to the difficulties in obtaining the official revenues of all media companies.
Jesus Christ Workers Members Cooperative does not appear in the eSearch and SEC Express Platforms of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Neither it is on the list of accredited cooperatives in the country.
The 2022 financial statement of Swara Sug Media Corporation provided revenue figures and a breakdown per radio station branches. The breakdown did not include its SMNI News Channel on television.
Conversion rate on Oct. 17, 2023: PhP56.836 per US$1.
