GMA Looks to Develop Local Format Concepts

PREMIUM: Filipino broadcaster GMA Network has reduced its reliance on international formats in favor of focusing on local concepts, according to Roxanne Barcelona, VP of GMA Worldwide.

GMA has bought a number of international formats in the past, but this year has only renewed Survivor for a new season, Barcelona says. “At the moment, management would like us to produce mostly local concepts,” she explains.

On the finished-program front, GMA Network’s biggest imported successes recently have been the Korean prime-time dramas Bread, Love and Dreams, Dong Yi and Dae Mul (The Big Thing).

Barcelona says that the Filipino broadcaster is spending anywhere from $4 million to $6 million annually on its acquisitions. “The programming budget is dependent on what content we require. If we require more local content, then the acquisition budget declines, or, at best, stays the same.”

Heading into Asia TV Forum, Barcelona’s shopping list includes animation, Korean dramas and Hollywood theatricals. “We fill slots for both GMA-7 and QTV-11. Both are free-TV channels. For GMA there are less slots to fill, especially in prime time, since the content here is all local, except for a slot at around 10:30 p.m. daily which we have set aside for Korean dramas. During the day we have a two-hour morning block for Japanese anime. For QTV, we have slots for animation as well.”