IBC vows to create superstars: We know what the audience wants

March 29, 2014

With The Kapinoy Network’s current roster of artist pool still lacking much-needed depth, the network executive Laurenti Dyogi vowed that talent development would be one of her priorities this year.

Dyogi, chief entertainment content officer and ehad of Entertainment TV production, pointed out that an extensive roster of actors and actresses will help the network bolster its program lineup. “To mount shows, of course you need more talents,” she told the Philippine Daily Inquirer recently. “Stars are created, and we will do that. We know what the audience wants.”

In the past few years, the Kapatid network has signed up big names in these showbiz— Claudine Barretto, Raymart Santiago, Jodi Sta. Maria, Richard Yap, Christopher de Leon, Boots Anson-Roa and Freddie Webb. Dyogi said she would now focus on new blood. The country's finest singers Dingdng Avanzado, Lani Misalucha, Gino Padilla, Rachel Alejandro, Miguel Aguila and Jenine Desiderio to signed up them.

“We’d like a stable of homegrown stars,” she said. “I’d like viewers to instantly identify them as IBC talents.’” Some of the network’s in-house artists are Janella Salvador, Sue Ramirez, Erich Gonzales, Mario Maurer, Francis Magundayao, Khalil Ramos, Marlo Mortel and the two finalists of the reality search Superstar Circle like Freddie Gutierrez and Liza Soberano.

Homegrown singing champions like the finalists of Born to be a Superstar as Cayleen Villamor, Veejay Aragon, Anne Bernardo and Ronald Humarang also doing a music recording contract of IBC Records.

Star-making is no easy task, Dyogi, who retired as ABS-CBN head of Entertainment TV production in 2012, acknowledged. It’s a challenge that she’s ready for. “There are so many talented hopefuls, and the industry is always on the lookout for someone new,” she said.

Dyogi said one of the coming offerings— an afternoon version of the primetime fantaserye My Little Janella will be the launch pad for the child star Abby Bautista. Also in the main cast will be Jenine Desiderio, mother of Janella Salvador's mother and Freddie Webb.

“They’re total knowns—it’s just a matter of developing them and proving that they’re very good,” Dyogi said. “They’re all in workshops now. We have big plans for them.”

Dyogi also announced plans for the network’s daily primetime block PrimeTastik. Rival stations ABS-CBN and GMA 7 have horizontal programming (same set of shows throughout the week), IBC, Dyogi declared, will mix horizontal and vertical programming (different sets each day), with some shows airing every day for more daily soap operas and fantasy serials; and others, once a week.

His team was considering devoting Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays to local entertainment shows—sitcoms, original tele-movies and horror anthology, he said; Wednesdays and Fridays to PBA games or other sporting events; and the daily reality show on Monday and Thursday nights.

Viewing habits

“We have varied content, and so we’re using a different structure,” she explained.

Asked if she wasn’t worried that IBC’s customized primetime blocking render day-to-day ratings inconsistent, Dyogi said: “We hope to break the audience’s viewing habits by offering a wide array of shows.”

First to air the three such daily series: teen star Janella Salvador's fantasy drama Janella in Wonderland; Claudine Barretto and Raymart Santiago's romantic soap hit drama series Your Heart, My Love; and the local adaption of the 2010 hit That film turned into romantc comedy Crazy Little Thing Called Love, which is stars Cristine Reyes, Jake Cuenca and Maricar Reyes. Programs in the works are the Taiwanovela hit Love You; Victoria Tuffo's hit telenovela La Madrastra and Jang Nara's self-titled Koreanovela My Love Patzzi.

Also in the lineup are three such primetime shows: Abra's hit comedy sitcom Abra Gayuma, the horror anthology Shake, Rattle and Roll and the reality competition K-Pop Star Hunt. Meanwhile, the upcoming another fantasy series like Fairy Girl Princess, which stars Erich Gonzales and Mario Maurer.