1996–2009: Studio 23 era
Three years later in 1996, MTV Asia returned to the Philippine airwaves after establishing a new regional base in Singapore. ABS-CBN was picked as the broadcast arm of MTV Asia in the Philippines at the time, and DWAC-TV Channel 23 began test broadcast in September 1996 with rebroadcast of the new MTV Asia from Singapore. A month later, it launched its own programming under the station name Studio 23 and adopted the slogan "Premium Television". The station initially ran MTV rebroadcast in the day and its own shows at prime time. It also ran for 24 hours, but financial limitations forced it to sign off at 3AM every day. That has been the broadcast arrangement ever since.
Five years later, MTV Asia acquired a new local UHF frequency and Studio 23 formally became a full station, adopting rebroadcasts of its in-house music cable channel Myx to fill in the void left by MTV Asia, and came up with intensified programming led by the popular reality TV game show Survivor, and several top-rated shows from the United States like 7th Heaven, Will and Grace and Charmed, among others.
By 2004, Studio 23 opened its doors to Taglish programs and adopted a new slogan, "Kabarkada Mo!". Previous to this, the station was already running its own English newscast, "News Central", from 1999 to 2010, effectively replacing the network's The World Tonight, previously on DWWX-TV Channel 2 which had moved to a cable-only newscast on ANC, the cable news channel of ABS-CBN. Studio 23 also geared its mostly young viewers to trends in the tech world with "Digital World". With the intensified Taglish presence, Studio 23 now had the nightly Tagalog gag newscast Wazzup Wazzup, the interactive youth talk show Y Speak, and several others. It even provided support shows to its highly successful local reality programs Pinoy Big Brother and Pinoy Dream Academy, both acquired from Endemol of the Netherlands and are big hits on Channel 2.
Expansion to sports programming
In 1998, ABS-CBN, through its sports division, ABS-CBN Sports, used mainly Studio 23 to highlight its own professional basketball league, the Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA). The league adopted the home and away format used by the American professional league the National Basketball Association (NBA). (It however sold the franchise of the league after incurring heavy losses.) It marked the network's first serious foray into sports programming.
Later, that would be added by acquiring broadcast rights to the collegiate leagues UAAP and NCAA and the PBL.
Today, it carries a wide variety of local sporting competitions, many of which involved neighborhood schools and showcasing budding Filipino sports talents.
