GMA’s “Maria Clara at Ibarra” tops time slot; Philippines time-shift prime-time drama closing in on “Lolong”
Philippines’ prime-time period fantasy drama, “Maria Clara at Ibarra”, hit average ratings of 15.1% within four days of its 3 October premiere and ranked number one in its daily Monday-Friday timeslot, the Manila-based GMA Entertainment Group said today.
The time-shift series, based on two novels by José Rizal, airs on both GMA and GTV channels, with episodes available on GMA’s social media channels, and is scheduled to run for 20 weeks until February 2023.
According to Nielsen Philippines TAM preliminary/overnight data provided by GMA, average combined ratings on the two channels from 10-14 October was 14.8%.
Set between 19th century Philippines under Spanish colonial rule and today, the series stars Barbie Forteza as gen-Z nursing student, Julie Anne San Jose as the perfect 19th-century lady, and Dennis Trillo as Crisostomo Ibarra.
Clips from the series have accumulated 130 million views on TikTok.
On GMA Network’s Facebook page, the first six episodes have been watched one million times each, GMA said, describing this as a milestone.
Directed by Zig Dulay, “Maria Clara at Ibarra” replaced the 65-episode action drama “Lolong” (aka “Crocodile Whisperer”), starring Ruru Madrid.
So far, “Maria Clara at Ibarra” is tracking behind “Lolong”.
The average rating for “Lolong” for its first 10 episodes was 16.29%, according to Nielsen data.
The average across 63 of the 65 episodes based on available data was 16.7%.
Already renewed for a second season “Lolong”, topped its time slot for 62 of its 65 episodes (source: AGB Nielsen, NUTAM people).
The peak rating was 19.3% for the season finale on 30 September. The lowest was 14.6% on 4 August 2022.
Netflix APAC at 36.23m paying subs in Q3; India drags down average revenue per user
Netflix added 1.43 million paying subscribers to its Asia Pacific base in the third quarter of this year, ending September at 36.23 million – 23% up year on year – but with its lowest average revenue per member (ARM) in 12 months.
APAC revenue for the quarter was US$889 million, a 19% increase excluding foreign exchange.
Netflix attributed the drop in ARM partially to its lower cost plans in India, but said this was offset by higher ARM in Australia and Korea.
Astory’s “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” was among five titles streamed during the quarter that Netflix listed as among its most watched series and films of all time.
Korea’s “Carter”, with 65 million hours viewed, was one of the platform’s two biggest non-English films for the quarter and is now the ninth most popular non-English film ever.
Three APAC markets – Australia, Japan and Korea – are among the global ad-supported services Netflix rolls out in November.
Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan missing in Kenya; friends petition PM Modi to help find Indian TV exec last heard from 90 days ago
Friends of Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan have appealed to India’s prime minister Narendra Modi to step into the hunt to find the 48-year-old former Indian TV exec, who has gone missing in Kenya.
Khan, who has worked for Star TV, Hooq, Eros Now and Balaji, has not been heard from since 21 July – three days before his planned return to India.
The petition on change.org was started by Rajiv Dubey on 14 October, and has since attracted 5,383 signatures.
Dubey called on Modi to intervene with the government of Kenya “and bring back Zulfi home safe”.
In his public plea, Dubey says Khan has a passion for exploration and that his trip to Kenya “was yet again the explorer in Zulfi wanting to experience a new country”.
“The traveller that he is, Zulfi doesn’t just visit a country or a place – but spends weeks exploring the area, soaking himself into its history and culture,” Dubey says.
Calling Kenyan police “clueless”, Dubey says Khan has been missing for almost 90 days “and yet no one has any idea about his whereabouts. Local police… have been asked by the High Court of the land to produce Zulfi but they have no idea where he is”.
“There are scattershot reports in the Kenyan media where they picked up the wrong LinkedIn profile of another Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan and called our Zulfi a “cyber security expert.” Which would be funny if it weren’t scary. Most of the information on him in their media is completely baseless and without any proper research,” Dubey says in his open letter to Modi.
Separately, India’s Ministry of External Affairs has said the search will continue, and that the Indian High Commission remains in touch with Kenyan authorities.
Khan is said to have been travelling in Kenya with another Indian national, Zaid Sami Kidwai, and their local driver. Kidwai and the driver are also missing.
Meanwhile, rumours are flowing thick and fast.
Local reports in India claim that the three were “abducted” by Kenyan state police. Others say they went missing after leaving a Nairobi nightclub. Among the rumours is that Khan and Kidwai were involved in the comms/tech initiatives of the re-election campaign for Kenyan president William Ruto, and got caught up in political fallout.
Kansai TV, Fremantle meet on game show format; no details on new co-development
Japan’s Kansai TV is working on an undisclosed game show format co-development with Fremantle, the companies said in Cannes yesterday afternoon. Kansai TV will produce and broadcast the Japanese original version later this year. Fremantle will handle production and global distribution of the title.
 
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