47 - 65 Plaridel • Vol. 11 No. 1 • 2014 At Home Elsewhere: The Transnational Kapamilya Imaginary in Selected ABS-CBN Station IDs Earvin Charles B. Cabalquinto In this era of globalization, “transnational television” has become pivotal in mobilizing cultural representations on a local and global scale. Transnational television expands its contours on a global scale and re-creates a sense of home by bringing “home-grown” programming to diasporic communities. ABS-CBN, an information and entertainment multimedia conglomerate in the Philippines, represents the operation of transnational media. Through its flagship The Filipino Channel (TFC), ABS-CBN is able to reach audiences worldwide via cable, satellite, online and mobile, and through its international subsidiaries and affiliates. Framing transnational television as a “field” in cultural work or practice, this paper critically inquires the reproduction of various capitals and misrecognition of symbolic violence and legitimization of social structures and profit-making in a globalized culture. Through an investigation of selected ABS-CBN Christmas Station IDs as a symbolic form in the media field, mediation of capitals—symbolic and network capital – is celebrated in transnational Kapamilya experience and interplayed with ABS-CBN’s quest to serve the Filipino worldwide. Keywords: transnational television, symbolic reproduction, symbolic violence, symbolic capital, network capital Introduction Globalization has transformed the television industry and culture. Globalizing media industries, deregulatory policy regimes, the multiplication and convergence of media formats, and the fragmentation of media audiences‑particularly national audiences‑impact television content, structure, and consumption (Tay & Turner, 2008). While globalization impacts the reconiguration of content, structure and consumption, Chalaby (2005) proposes the rise of “transnational television” as a result of “expansion of hundreds of cross‑border TV channels that occupy transponder space on communication satellites that can beam a signal across a whole continent” (p. 1). With trans‑border TV channels such in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Greater China and Latin America, majority of cross‑border TV channels are pan‑regional in scope and serve regional and diasporic groups living beyond their geographical contours (2005). hese channels that “air home‑made television programmes and even adapt international feeds to local taste as a form of localization” (p. 2) operate on what Sinclair (2005) refers to as “geocultural regions” or “regions not solely deined by