Exclusive Interview: GMA Network’s Felipe L. Gozon

PREMIUM: Felipe L. Gozon, the chairman and CEO of GMA Network, reveals to TV Asia Pacific what his main priorities are for maintaining GMA’s ratings highs, driving increases in ad revenues and expanding onto new platforms.

TV ASIA PACIFIC: What’s driving GMA’s ratings gains?
GOZON: I think it is our innovative and quality content. If the programs are not worth watching, viewers will simply change channels or turn the TV off. As we are faced with more and more media options, it is imperative that we are able to provide our viewers with strong, refreshing, and differentiated program offerings. This is the reason why GMA continues to invest heavily in original programming that is relevant to all Filipino viewers whenever and wherever they are. We are fortunate that our afternoon soaps continue to dominate the national ratings and our news and public-affairs programs [are seen as highly credible among viewers].

TV ASIA PACIFIC: What prompted the expansion of your regional stations network? 
GOZON: In a fairly short period of eight months, GMA Network launched three originating regional stations—in Ilocos, Bicol and Northern Mindanao. All of these new originating stations have wider coverage areas when compared with the existing stations of [our] competition. It is important that we speak the language of our viewers, offer them the best in programming as well as provide our advertisers cost-efficient and effective strategies of communication. GMA Network is investing carefully in ensuring that we achieve these goals.

TV ASIA PACIFIC: What is your strategy is for serving viewers morning, afternoon and in prime?
GOZON: We place great value on innovation. We must be able to keep the audience interested by offering something fresh every time—whether it is an innovation to a format or a story not yet tackled in a soap opera or a fresh casting combination. GMA has always been known for trailblazing formats and concepts—from the highly-successful telefantasys Mulawin and Endantadia to the first superhero soaps, Darna and Captain Barbell, to the first Mexican novela adaptation, the phenomenal hit Marimar, to the most recent historical-fiction epic dramas, Amaya and Indio. GMA’s hit comedy program Pepito Manaloto is the first to infuse reality elements in a situation comedy. Even the longest-running Philippine gag show, Bubble Gang, continues to evolve and creates characters who [have] become well-loved among the Filipino audience and moved on to become famous film characters. But more importantly, we make sure that in every program that we create, we are able to connect with the hearts of our viewers, i.e., that our viewers are able to empathize with our stories and our characters and that we create an emotional bond with them.

Our programming strategy is simply this: that we know who is watching at all time blocks of the day, and that we listen to, and address these viewers’ needs. Kids will get to see their favorite cartoons in the morning, housewives will get to watch dramas in the afternoon and evening, and those who work will be able to catch the late-night news when they get home.

We think that this is most concisely put in one of our network’s core values: “The viewer is boss.”

TV ASIA PACIFIC: How are you fostering an environment to create innovative content?
GOZON: GMA News TV now serves as a laboratory for fresh and substantive programming for the network. GMA News TV has begun producing original mini-series featuring political issues, history and social realism. This year the channel launches Bayan Ko, a drama series about an idealistic town mayor fighting corruption and a political dynasty. The channel will also be producing the historical docudrama Katipunan on revolutionary hero Andres Bonifacio, among other projects. GMA News TV hopes to lead the way to new television—raising the level of Philippine TV programming to match the better informed and better educated local audience that we now have compared to decades past.

TV ASIA PACIFIC: How has the ad market in the Philippines been, and how are you looking to increase your share of the pie?
GOZON: The Philippines is considered one of the key markets not just for multinationals but also for local advertisers. It could be because of our young population profile—they are the early adopters and comprise one of the largest consumer bases, especially for fast-moving consumer goods. Industry adspend in the market ranges from moderate growth to high growth, depending on certain categories, and we expect a more robust industry this year with national elections in the offing.

Our strategy here is pretty straightforward. Beyond cost efficiency and effectiveness, we offer our clients tailor-made results-oriented solutions that work. We leverage the various media platforms of GMA Network (broadcast TV and radio, regional, events and digital, etc.) to meet clients’ increasing requirements. It is not just about having the cheapest spot buys.   

TV ASIA PACIFIC: What opportunities do you see for GMA’s role in the pay-TV business in the Philippines?
GOZON: As a producer of informative and entertainment content, GMA can leverage its vast and rich program library and provide/sell content to cable channel programmers like Fox Filipino, broadband [platforms], etc. The proliferation of video-streaming gadgets will only continue to get better, faster, cheaper, thus GMA will have more options to distribute content.

While ABS-CBN has invested in pay TV through Sky Cable and has further consolidated its cable and broadband reach with the acquisition of [the pay-TV platform] Destiny, this does not preclude GMA from acquiring a cable operator—there still are independent cable and broadband operators—should it be economically viable [and] profitable to do so. However, once digitization happens, it will enable the company to program additional SD channels on a singular UHF frequency, so [we could] engage in the pay-TV business without having to invest in laying out the expensive cable/fiber optic infrastructure that traditional cable operators had to do.

Pay TV or VOD via the Internet remains an option, though it seems that the Philippine market isn’t ready yet to pay for content that they can see for free [even if it means] the convenience of watching on one’s own time.

TV ASIA PACIFIC: What are your plans for your international channel business?
GOZON: In 2005, we launched our flagship international premium linear TV channel, GMA Pinoy TV. It is a subscription-based service aimed at the estimated 11 million expatriate Filipinos spread all over the world. Since its launch, it has gained widespread distribution in the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, the Middle East, Europe and Australia. Its global viewership base is now estimated at 2.2 million.

Following the success of GMA Pinoy TV, a lifestyle channel, GMA Life TV, has been launched and is now also widely distributed globally. Last year, our third linear service, a 24/7 news and public-affairs channel, GMA News TV, was launched. Soon, we will also offer content via video-on-demand services.

TV ASIA PACIFIC: What are greatest opportunities for expansion going forward?
GOZON: We need to be consistently best-in-class in what we do to be able to remain dominant and relevant to our market. The challenges (aggressive competition, slow economy, etc.) we are faced [with] now will not go away and we anticipate these—they keep us on our toes and make us raise the bar higher.

If print media is said to be a sunset industry worldwide, we believe television is still at high noon. But sunset may also be the down the line. That is why we are thinking seriously about new media, and planning for the future. New media and the Internet offer a wide variety of opportunities and possible directions for our core business, TV content.

Since 2006, GMA has gone full blast in extending its brand online through GMANews.TV. In less than two years it became the country’s leading news website. Before this, there was iGMA.TV (since 2001), which was GMA’s main online brand for its shows and stars. These two sites came together via a portal in 2011 called GMANetwork.com.

We recognize that PCs are no longer the main (or at least the only) device through which our audience access content. Since the advent of portable IP gadgets, such as smartphones and tablets, people prefer to consume news and entertainment anytime, anywhere and anyhow. We have thus re-launched GMANews.TV for mobile and for YouScoop—a service that allows anybody with a smartphone to submit newsworthy photos and videos to GMA for later broadcast, of course, once these have gone through the necessary editorial checks. Very soon, we will be launching perhaps the country’s first mobile-web application for GMANetwork.com. 

This is just the beginning. We acknowledge that there is more work to be done to improve our social-media standing. This is in the works.

We are ensuring that we will be at the top of our game for the 2013 [general mid-term] elections, when the demand for fast online information will be at its highest.

We have also expanded our online presence so that our professional journalists are active in a wide array of social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, Instagram, Tumblr and YouTube.