DWDB-TV
However, by 1999, the costs of operating the station in this format were becoming too high for GMA as well as the intense competition from Studio 23 (later renamed as ABS-CBN Sports and Action in 2014), a UHF television network owned by AMCARA Broadcasting Network and operated by ABS-CBN Corporation. As a result, DWDB was turned into a music channel under the interim branding EMC, the Entertainment Music Channelwhich was also the country's first locally operated music channel. A few months later, GMA reached a deal with Asian broadcaster STAR TV to allow DWDB to be a carrier of Channel V Philippines, which took effect December 19, 1999. GMA had already aired selected Channel V programming from its international version (which made the former VJ's and Filipino descented Trey Farley and Joey Mead familiar to viewers of DWDB). This arrangement did not last longa stake in GMA was recently purchased by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, who already owned MTV Philippines through the Nation Broadcasting Corporation and its parent company MediaQuest Holdings. This conflict of interest, along with the increasing competition from the MTV affiliated network, led to the channel signing-off on July 25, 2001.