Entertainment is a powerful and wealthy industry that has cast a spell over millions of Filipinos. We list the 25 individuals who determine the content of entertainment, package the stars, and control the distribution of showbiz products.

TRUST Filipinos to turn entertainment into a P40-billion business that thrives even when the economy is in the doldrums, its influence felt not only across economic sectors but also in politics. The entertainment industry provides corporations a platform from which to advertise their products and gives telecommunications companies the content to deliver over their networks. Entertainment also drives consumer spending and keeps Filipinos plugged into radio, TV, and mobile phones.

But the real power of entertainment over our lives can be seen in the ways it has shaped our popular culture and defined our character as a people. Entertainment values have infected every aspect of life and have found their way into our conversations, our vocabulary, our fashion sense, and even our brand of politics.

To appreciate the power of entertainment over our national life is to acknowledge the men and women who pull the strings behind every celebrity, hit program, or trend. These are the people who produce the content of entertainment — the tunes, the programs, and films we listen to and watch — and who distribute it across the country through their radio and TV networks, retail outlets, theaters, and the new wireless technologies.

The power is also with the stars who make this content interesting and worth watching or downloading over vast networks, and the people responsible for hyping them, manufacturing their images, and opening the doors to stardom. Yet while star power is awesome, it is never complete — at least without the money. And so it is that the power also belongs to those who finance the dreams of stardom as well as to those who frustrate them through government regulations and public codes of morality.

The power list below brings together names from all over the entertainment industry and some from even outside it. Because the world of show business runs on hype and self-promotion, drawing up a list of the industry's power elite is never easy. To cut through the hyperbole, separate the real power brokers from the pretenders, and produce a semblance of objectivity, we interviewed talent managers, artists, and executives across networks and companies. We also used a set of criteria: the elements of power that provide an individual with the control over the making of stars, the creation of content, and the distribution of that content to audiences, and of course, the financial resources to sustain it. Plus, there are also intangibles like gravitas and character, qualities that separate the truly powerful from — to borrow a term in showbiz — the merely "feeling."

On top of the list are the media moguls — the most powerful of the lot who control the hardware and software, which is to say, the machines, the talents, and the technology that creates content and the pipelines that distribute it. Of the 25, an overwhelming proportion belongs to the television industry. TV remains the most popular medium of entertainment because it's accessible and it's free. Hard times and cheap alternatives offered by pirates have affected the film and music industry. A few years ago, movie producers and recording executives would have dominated the list, but today, only those who had the foresight to diversify into television survive.

Without doubt, stars are made and unmade in the hands of media moguls, but the few who can stand up to their power and leverage their popularity to negotiate their terms are those that appear below. As for those with neither the clout, ability nor stomach to face the often humiliating experience of negotiations and self-promotion, the industry has created the role of the star maker and deal broker: the agents, managers and publicists. No surprise then that in a society that worships celebrity, six star makers land on the list of the most powerful — many of whom have, because of their proximity to stars, become celebrities themselves.

The 25 men and women on this list belong to different fields and educational and class backgrounds, but they all share the same traits, without which one is only popular or wealthy but not powerful. In the end, it's about character — or charisma. This, and the ability to connect to others. In entertainment, just as in businesses or politics, power is proportional to the size of your network. Companies and individuals that attempt to do it alone fail miserably, while those that buy and sell to each other and form alliances survive and emerge stronger. No wonder synergy and convergence are the buzzwords of the industry today.

But the side effect of synergy, when applied to individuals, is often a case of conflict of interest. You'll find that many talent managers on the list double up as publicists, showbiz writers, program producers, and hosts.

There is a caveat. While the entertainment elite wields power, it is power that is ultimately in the hands of the market: the Filipino audience, who can just as easily grant and withdraw it as it pleases.