GMA targets millennials with 3 exclusively online shows

GMA NETWORK has ventured into creating original online content with the Jan. 1 launch of GMA ONE Online Exclusives, featuring three shows which are screened exclusively on the network’s YouTube page.

The three shows cover a variety of topics, from millennials’ problems, to lifestyle, to fake news.

Adulting with Atom Araullo is about how millennials and young professionals deal with adult issues as Mr. Araullo gives “netizens a peek at his everyday struggles as he faces the responsibilities of being on his own, and living on a budget,” said a company press release.

Meanwhile, #Goals with Gabbi Garcia is similar to many lifestyle channels, with Ms. Garcia exploring “her goals in beauty, style, makeup, travel and music.”

Finally, GMA News reporter Joseph Morong tackles the serious issue of recognizing fake news in Fact or Fake.

“Fact or Fake goes back to one of the tenets of journalism which is fact- checking,” said Mr. Morong in the press release.

New episodes of the shows — each are five- to eight- minutes long — will be uploaded every Monday at 5 p.m. The shows will have “at least 10 episodes,” said Nessa Valdellon, GMA Network’s first vice-president for public affairs, in an e-mail interview with BusinessWorld in late December.

“Each series of GMA ONE will have at least 10 episodes, though likely many more than that as we see these as being potentially long-running programs,” she said.

The online exclusives, Ms. Valdellon said, were in response to the “very, very dramatic uptake in our GMA YouTube following,” and in order to provide “the younger audience with good program options.”

“GMA has a very strong TV audience in the Philippines, especially among older, C2DE viewers [GMA classifies the C bracket into C1 or the upper C, and C2, or lower C]. Millennials, however, watch a lot of content online... In addition, we have seen a very, very dramatic uptake in our GMA YouTube following — our number of subscribers as well as amount of time spent watching — the past year and we want to expand this now huge audience further,” she explained.

The shows’ pilot episodes showed Mr. Araullo’s and Ms. Garcia’s utilizing the “vlog ” style ( where personalities bring a handheld camera around as they go about their day for a more intimate feel) though they also have sitdowns in front of the camera as they dispense advice.

In the first episodes, Mr. Araullo gives the audience a snippet of how he managed to move out of his family home and into his own abode while Ms. Garcia brought her viewers along for a trip to the beach.

“We noticed how popular ‘ how- to’ videos are with millennials, hence the concepts of Adulting with Atom Araullo and #Goals with Gabbi Garcia. Both [Mr. Araullo and Ms. Garcia] have a very strong millennial online following so we wanted to reach the age range of their audiences,” Ms. Valdellon said of the rationale behind the shows.

Mr. Morong’s show was a bit different as it mostly showed him inside a café doing an explainer about the definition of fake news while inserting news articles and clips as examples.

“Meanwhile, fake news is one of the biggest issues that face us today and since most of it now spreads is online, it is just appropriate that we have an online show that discusses it,” she added.

In the series press conference held on Dec. 20 at the GMA Coop building in Quezon City, Mr. Morong pointed out that his show was timely because the country is nearing the 2019 midterm elections and he hopes his show will help viewers to form informed opinions.

Ms. Valdellon said the online exclusive content “marks the new era in our content production and programming.”

“We’ve been tracking Philippines and particularly GMA YouTube viewers closely the past years and we’ve seen which particular kinds of content are doing well and which audience these hit. The edgier content in fact has been the more successful. For our producers, honestly, we find it exciting to finally be producing content for an audience of people like ourselves — viewers in their teens, 20’s and 30’s — as for decades now we have been producing television content primarily for housewives 40 and up,” she said. —