Given the former ‘reformat’ of GMA News TV to GTV, which now carries more entertainment features–is GMA Network’s subsidiary channel trying to go against its main channel?
During the zoom conference of their official launch, GMA executive Annette Gozon-Valdez talked about GTV competing with its main channel, GMA Network.
According to Gozon-Valdez, it inevitable that there will be overlapping programs between the sister channels, rather than competing with each other–it will complement the Network instead.
“Well actually, of course we will not be able to avoid na merong certain timeslots that will be carrying the same genre.
“Like for example, right now we have The Lost Recipe airing against our own GMA dramas diba on the main channel but as we said we feel that there is room for a variety of shows if the target audience is a bit different.
“Of course, we cannot avoid na babangga sya in some way but we feel that the audience is wide enough to be able to absorb that”
Annette also talked about the rating game, saying they are working on expanding the reach of GTV this year to cater to a much wider audience both on analog and digital TVs.
“Of course may certain rating point to gauge whether or not successful yung show and as long as medyo may significant ratings naman sya, may a bit significant audience share it will be already successful.
“But at the same time, we realize that we have to widen and expand the reach of GTV so we are currently investing in that. And this year you will see that am we’re going to expand the coverage of GTV both on analog and digital to be able to reach a wider audience.”
Currently, based on the AGB Nielsen TV measurement, GTV came in second to GMA Network and they’ve started to gain traction since the introduction of more entertainment programs and of course due to the absence of the biggest competitor ABS-CBN.
GTV in its line-up currently has the rom-com series The Lost Recipe, rom-com anthology My Fantastic Pag-ibig, and the game show Game of the Gens.
Also, other shows in the pipeline are Julie Anne San Jose and David Licauco‘s Heartful Café, Gabbi Garcia and Khalil Ramos‘ romance-mystery series Love You Stranger, and teen-oriented show FLEX with Mavy Legaspi, Lexi Gonzales, Joaquin Domagoso, and Althea Ablan.
The rebranding was announced in December 2020 as a result of the overflowing advertisement load of GMA Network following the shutdown of ABS-CBN on free TV. Due to the shutdown of ABS-CBN on free TV, GMA benefitted with additional ad placements which they wanted to distribute on its GMA News TV.
However, it can also be seen as the Kapuso network’s play to go against the slow rise of another rebranded channel A2Z Channel 11, which airs several Kapamilya programs as part of ABS-CBN’s block time agreement with Zoe Broadcasting.
