GMA Drama Formats Take LatAm, Asian Markets by Storm

Nearly ten scripted format titles from GMA Worldwide’s catalog have sold across Asia and Latin America to be remade for local audiences, a feat made possible, according to company VP Roxanne J. Barcelona, due to the relatable themes of family values, faith and friendships.

GMA has sent seven formats to Mexico, including Little Heiress, which tells the story of Doña Anastacia’s struggle to determine the true heir to her fortune—Jennifer, Michelle or Calilla. My Destiny is about the prophesied meet-cute of true loves Lucas Matthew and Grace, while The Half Sisters follows non-identical twins Diana and Ashley, who share the same mother but not the same father. Three-year-old Ana becomes a feral child after she’s kidnapped and isolated with only a dog as her companion in Until We Meet Again, and My Superstar is about a young IT graduate who agrees to pose as a contrarian actor’s girlfriend. Fellow romance-focused series My One and Only Love and The Other Mrs. Real round out GMA’s drama-format sales to Mexico.

The Other Mrs. Real, which shows a man facing the consequences of marrying two women, also sold into Vietnam, along with Losing Heaven, a story about friends Ellery and Bridgitte, who both want to win the love of a man named Jonas. Cambodian audiences have been privy to a local adaptation of the GMA title Impostora, which centers on a woman who goes under the knife to alter her disfigured face, only to learn too late that she’s bound to assume another woman’s life and identity with her new one.

“While we are open to distributing our formats to all markets, we are targeting active producers in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Latin America,” Barcelona explains to TV Formats Weekly, adding, “To date, Latin America is the biggest consumer of our scripted formats.”

But no matter into which territory a format is sold, GMA Worldwide is conscious to tailor the respective offerings to the sensibilities of the intended regional viewers. And while one format could have the potential to appeal to multiple markets, not all markets (and the audiences within them) are the same—requiring tinkering to the universal larger-picture stories that are being told.

“We make sure that the formats we offer in each market suit the audience’s taste—some markets prefer heavy dramas while some prefer light, rom-com themes,” says Barcelona. “We also make sure that the scripts we offer to a particular territory are flexible enough to introduce local elements that will make it more appealing to their local viewers.”

In an effort to build relationships and broaden the reach of GMA Worldwide’s offerings, collaborations with global partners are very much on the table for the company. “We aim to forge enduring partnerships with our clients, therefore, we do not only offer our formats for remake, but we are also open to co-production proposals,” Barcelona says.

Further, GMA is expanding the scope of the content it can present to buyers with unscripted formats, which it has already been promoting to clients in Asia. While there’s been plenty of talk about Korea emerging as a new major exporter of unscripted formats with the success of The Masked Singer, could GMA Worldwide lead the charge in raising the Philippines’ global format profile?