Insider Spotlight
Speaking during the company’s online annual stockholders’ meeting on Friday, GMA Network CEO Gilberto Duavit Jr. said the broadcaster’s digital initiatives are anchored on building audience trust while expanding how Filipinos access its content across television, online, and mobile platforms.
The big picture
Duavit said the return of GMA News’ longtime slogan, “Walang kinikilingan, walang pinoprotektahan, serbisyong totoo lamang,” was driven less by branding than by the need to reaffirm the network’s journalistic standards amid the rise of misinformation and political polarization.
“Bringing the tagline back was not so much a strategy as a practical and timely act,” Duavit said.
He said public discourse following last year’s political developments highlighted the urgency of reminding audiences about the principles that built GMA News’ credibility.
“When we say GMA News is ‘walang kinikilingan,’ it is not only the organization but the news itself that is impartial,” Duavit said. “In a world where fake news and polarization become ubiquitous, it became a necessity.”
He added that consistently upholding those editorial values would ultimately strengthen public trust and audience loyalty.
Driving digital distribution
The broadcaster is also preparing for the National Telecommunications Commission’s planned analog television shutdown in Mega Manila in November.
Duavit said GMA’s digital broadcast infrastructure is already capable of supporting the transition, describing the operational shift as largely a matter of turning off its analog transmitters.
“Our digital coverage presently in Mega Manila is second to none,” he said, adding that digital reach now effectively matches or even exceeds the network’s analog coverage.
Nationwide, GMA’s digital signal already reaches roughly 90 percent of television households from Luzon to Mindanao, positioning the company for future analog shutdowns across the country.
The network said it will launch an information campaign to help households determine whether they will be affected by the transition while making digital reception devices available.
Expanding the digital ecosystem
Duavit also defended the launch of GMA Play, saying the platform complements rather than replaces the company’s distribution through YouTube, Facebook, Netflix, iWant and other streaming services.
Instead of building an entirely new service, GMA integrated GMA Play into its existing mobile application, allowing it to leverage more than 4.4 million app downloads with minimal additional investment.
“The creation and launching of GMA Play cost virtually nothing,” Duavit said.
Beyond expanding video consumption, GMA Play allows the network to monetize licensed content that can only be distributed through company-owned platforms while creating opportunities for future transactional video-on-demand offerings.
“It’s important to note that this was only launched in February this year, and it’s already gaining a lot of interest,” Duavit said.
The digital initiatives build on GMA’s strong 2025 performance, when the company posted a 3 percent increase in consolidated revenue and a 6.39- percent rise in net income to P2.197 billion, supported by election-related advertising and a 13 percent increase in digital advertising revenue. —Daxim L. Lucas| Ed: Corrie S. Narisma
