Leading media network, GMA, marks another first as it sold four of its dramas to India, the second most populous country in the world.
In a deal brokered by GMA Worldwide, Inc. (GWI), GMA’s content distribution subsidiary, two major Over-the-Top (OTT) streaming service providers in India will carry over 300 hours of the Network’s content.
GWI entered into a licensing agreement with MX Player, considered as India’s most premium OTT platform. MX Player is owned by Times Internet, the digital media division of Times Group, India’s largest media conglomerate. Starting August, GMA-produced content will be available for viewing to MX Player’s impressive 350+ million users in India across different platforms, including Android, iOS, and PC. The titles licensed by GWI to MX Player are hit romance comedies Meant To Be and Juan Happy Love Story.
In another deal, GWI expanded its license agreement with GagaOOLala, Asia’s first and biggest LGBTQ-focused streaming platform to make available to India the groundbreaking and critically-acclaimed dramas My Husband’s Lover and The Rich Man’s Daughter beginning June. Owned by Taipei-based distribution company Portico Media, GagaOOLala entered the Indian OTT market after the country decriminalized homosexuality in 2018.
Considered a cult hit in the Philippines, Meant To Be is a romantic comedy about four guys of different racial and cultural backgrounds who fall in love with the same girl. They try to woo the girl by showing her different languages of love. Fans and viewers of the series root and even got to vote online for the fellow they think deserves to end up with the girl.
A romantic comedy with a hint of sexy, Juan Happy Love Story tells the story of Juan and Happy, a man and a woman who are worlds apart in their views about life and love but find themselves in a whirlwind romance. They seem to be a perfect match until they find out that they cannot bear a child because they have incompatible biochemistries.
GMA’s groundbreaking drama, My Husband’s Lover tells the story of a woman who belatedly discovers that her husband has been carrying on an affair, but with another man. It is the first ever LGBTQ-themed series on Philippine primetime television. The powerful drama earned the nod of critics and the LGBTQ community. It earned a nomination in the International Emmy Awards telenovela category.
Tackling a lesbian love story, The Rich Man’s Daughter is another first on Philippine television. It tells the story of an heiress to a rich Chinese family whose life and beliefs change when she falls in love with another woman. It is loosely based on a true story of a rich man who offered a huge “marriage bounty” to any man who could marry his daughter. The drama was also highly-acclaimed for representing and empowering gay women.