GMA Network keeps in-step with technology

MANILA, Philippines - Leading multimedia conglomerate GMA Network Inc. is keeping in step with advancements in technology, its chairman and CEO Felipe L. Gozon said in a speech during the recently concluded 22nd Philippine Advertising Congress held at the CamSur Watersports Complex (CWC) in Camarines Sur.

Gozon said the television giant has gone to great lengths to intermarry new and traditional media in its broadcast operations. Beyond sign-off schedule, GMA had found means to hook up with its audience. The connection is now 24/7.

“The new mission of media in the digital age is to engage viewers and make them active participants.” For instance, GMA’s online citizen journalism YouScoop has helped the network deliver the news “as it happens, when it happens,” he explained.

But amid heightened subscription to evolving media such as digital and mobile, Gozon said that “television will still be the medium to beat for many years to come.” He said that television, the most pervasive and most ubiquitous of all media, is critical in people empowerment through information.

With television consumption rate in the Philippines increasing from 97 percent in 2007 to 98 percent in 2011 according to global media research company Synovate, television remains the most effective platform to deliver news and entertainment. In fact, it is the cheapest form of entertainment for 94 percent of households in the country.

Gozon emphasized that television’s continued success is driven by quality content – a non-negotiable in the television business and the key dimension that defines the daily drill in the Kapuso Network.

Guided by the mantra of delivering only quality program content and unrelenting Serbisyong Totoo, GMA raised the bar of programming with trailblazing programs such as Amaya, Munting Heredera and flagship newscast 24 Oras, among others, on primetime.

The self-imposed standard of delivering quality content also resulted into another alternative local all-news channel from GMA – GMA News TV (GNTV), now the number one news channel in the country.

Gozon said that GMA will continue to reinvent television, and turn the challenges stemming from digitization into opportunities. He said that GMA will “continue to harness new technologies not only to keep consumers watching the GMA programs, but have them stay through commercials in between.”

Gozon is credited with steering GMA towards being the number one television station in the country today in both ratings and profits and is consistently listed as among BizNews Asia’s Power 100 from 2003 to 2010. Last year, he earned the distinction of being the only Filipino to be selected as a member of the Advisory Board for the Asian Television Awards.