GMA Network enhances TV experience with the most interactive media web portal in PHL

CEBU, Philippines - While GMA Network, Inc. continues its dominance in nationwide TV ratings, the media company has also become the frequent hub of millions of Kapuso netizens in the country and all over the world with its comprehensive content and its highly interactive media experience.

GMA Chairman and CEO Felipe L. Gozon says that the media portal perfectly complements the Company’s broadcast operations. “Since it was launched eight months ago, GMANetwork.com, the most comprehensive media portal in the country, has enabled visitors to easily access the latest in news and information, as well as updates on the Company’s digital properties.”

GMA President and COO Gilberto R. Duavit Jr., further notes, “Whatever the media platform—traditional, non-traditional or emerging—GMA Network makes sure that it is there to meet the evolving needs of its audience. GMANetwork.com engages our viewers around the globe with the latest news stories and web-exclusive content, while enabling them to access information about their favorite shows and Kapuso personalities.”

GMA VP for Program Support Regie C. Bautista adds that “Digital platform developments and changes in media consumption in the last few years have made it natural for GMA to deliver content to our online audience through GMANetwork.com. As the Filipino’s Kapuso station, it is important for us to make our communication and content available to our local and international audience as well as provide a venue where our viewers can engage with our brand directly online.”

Keeping up-to-date on the Kapuso Network is also made easy. The portal features the live social media feeds from the official accounts of GMA Network shows, artists, and news personalities. A complete directory in the Community site offers a quick look at all official accounts.

Just as the portal brought together GMA Network’s digital properties, visitors to the site can now link their accounts from various social media networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter. This allows a more seamless social media experience where one can simply click, like, and share. Kapuso netizens can react and comment on the various rich media content on the site. They can even share articles, photos, videos that catch their attention.

The interactivity does not end there as Kapuso celebrities take time to reach out to viewers online. Fans from all over can ask questions, or send messages, which the stars enthusiastically reply to. Those who are lucky are even greeted live by the celebrity through the webcam.

Meanwhile, GMA News and Public Affairs empowers ordinary Filipinos to participate in the news-gathering process through YouScoop, the pioneering citizen journalism tool of GMA News Online.

GMA News Online Editor-in-Chief and VP for Multimedia Journalism Howie Severino says that his team aims to move eyeballs from the tube to the web, and vice versa. “There is an inherent link between the two media,” Severino notes. “Since television can only contain information that will fit into its limited airtime, our news site plays a perfectly complementary role by providing breadth and depth to the news, as well as interactive content that is one of the unique contributions of the web.”

Of course, YouScoop is not for the exclusive use of those in the Philippines. GMA International encourages Filipinos abroad to send online overseas news items through this tool. Several international news items have actually been aired over GMA’s TV channels.

GMA International also invites the most in-demand Kapuso stars to go on Skype dates with international subscribers of GMA Pinoy TV, GMA Life TV, and GMA News TV International. Dingdong Dantes, Marian Rivera, and Dennis Trillo are among those who have participated in this promotional activity that was a huge hit especially among US-based subscribers.

The one-stop site for all things Kapuso, GMANetwork.com has the latest on everything Kapuso, with individual sites for GMA Public Affairs, GMA News TV, Radio GMA, Kapuso Foundation, GMA Films, GMA Records, Community, and Corporate.

Always in step with the latest in digital technology, there is no doubt that GMA Network is committed to keep delivering media experience unlike any other.