Batibot is a Philippine television educational show broadcast by GMA Network. Produced by PCTV, it premiered in 1984 on Sesame!. It later aired as Batibot in 1985. The show concluded in 2013.
History
Conception and the first ''Batibot''
Batibot was conceptualized and produced by Feny Bautista, a teacher from the Community of Learners Foundation and writer Rene Villanueva. The show was inspired by the American children's show, Sesame Street which educates preschoolers through dance, song, and role-play educational skills through them. First aired in 1984, Batibot debuted as Sesame!. It stars Pong Pagong and Kiko Matsing which the characters were based on one of the Filipino stories, The Monkey and the Turtle popularized by José Rizal. In the first year of its airing, the children's show was co-produced by the Philippine Children's Television Foundation and Children's Television Workshop with the support of then First LadyImelda Marcos. Government support did not last long, ended within 1984 and the co-production deal was cancelled. The Philippine producers went on to produce a show based on Sesame Street in February 1985. Batibot was then done wholly in Filipino and featured stories in a Philippine context. Airing on weekdays with a time slot of 10:30 AM, the series consistently ranked in 1985 among the top 10 daytime shows in the Philippines, outdoing its performance in 1984 when it was still a co-produced series and wholly American produced Sesame Street which first aired in the country in 1970. By February 1989, Batibot was airing its sixth season. However the producers of the series were experiencing financial constraints which placed uncertainty regarding the future airing of the show. Batibot was first aired in RPN and PTV, then it was later aired by ABS-CBN, then by GMA. In 1999, Batibot was relaunched as "Batang Batibot" airing on a Saturday morning timeslot. "Batibot" ceased airing in 2002.
TV5's ''Batibot'' (2010–2013)
announced in 2010 that it would revive the Batibot series that first aired in the 1980s. TV5's version of Batibot featured a different set of characters than the prior series–Ate Maya and Kuya Fidel, and Koko Kwik Kwak. Instead of a Monday–Friday broadcast format, the new series was aired on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. The airing of the series lasted until 2013.
Cast and characters
Batibot featured characters portrayed by puppets as well as human characters. The puppets used for the show were mostly locally made. Kiko Matsing and Pong Pagong who were among the main characters of the first Batibot were crafted in New York.
In August 14, 2015, Smart Communications launched a mobile app for Android devices based on the children's show series. Smart together with the Community of Learners Foundation commissioned OrangeFix to develop the app. The development of the app content costed around. The Batibot app is specifically targeted to children from kindergarten to Grade 3. It is aligned with the Department of Education's kindergarten curriculum and is in Filipino. An iOS version of the app was released on July 5, 2017.
