When drama series "Unbreak My Heart" premiered this weekend, a new era of co-operation and potential dawned for TV production in the Philippines.

The 100x30 mins series is the first collaboration between the Philippines’ former broadcast rivals – ABS-CBN Corporation and GMA Network – and regional streaming service Viu.

The three-way alliance has given rise to hopes of similar production collaborations in the Philippines and elsewhere.

Viu’s involvement gives the show a footprint across Southeast Asia, the Middle East and South Africa with a reach of over 66 million monthly active users and 12 million premium subs.

Viu CEO/PCCW Media Group MD, Janice Lee, says she believes the alliance “is the new beginning in taking Philippines’ productions to a whole new level, by combining our resources as well as to showcase premium production coming out of the Philippines and bringing it in front of a global audience”.

"Unbreak My Heart" stars Jodi Sta Maria (an ABS-CBN artist) as Rose, who travels to Switzerland in search of the daughter she abandoned years ago. While there, she becomes entangled in a love triangle with Renz (Joshua Garcia, ABS-CBN) and Alex (Gabbi Garcia, GMA). Their lives take a darker turn when Rose’s estranged husband, Matt (Richard Yap, GMA), shows up.

Sta Maria talks about the end of rivalry between ABS-CBN and GMA “providing more job opportunities for the people in this industry that we have grown to love”.

Production is helmed by ABS-CBN’s TV production and entertainment arm, Dreamscape Entertainment, with a mixed cast from Kapuso/GMA and Kapamilya/ABS-CBN talent. 

"Unbreak My Heart" co-directors – Emmanuel (Manny) Q. Palo ("Love Lockdown") and Dolly Dulu ("Love Beneath the Stars") – along with Viu’s head of content partnerships for Philippines, Garlic Garcia, bill the series as “a legacy”, creating a historic moment and a breakthrough in opening a “floodgate for new collaborations and partnerships” in the local TV scene in the Philippines.

The weekend’s online releases on GMAnetwork.com and ABS-CBN’s iWantTFC, as well as across the region on Viu, are followed on Monday (29 May) with prime-time 9.35pm releases on three GMA channels – GMA-7’s prime-time Telebabad slot; digital channel, Pinoy Hits; and free-TV channel, I Heart Movies.

The series airs two hours later, at 11.25pm, on GMA’s general entertainment/youth centric channel, GTV, as well as on both programmers’ international pay-TV channels – GMA Pinoy TV and ABS-CBN’s TFC.

New episodes premiere on Viu’s free AVOD tier and online followed 48 hours later by TV releases from Mondays to Thursdays. 

Co-directors Palo and Dulu talk about the challenges of shooting in Switzerland and Italy on tight schedules with smaller teams than they were used to at home. 

Production decisions were made jointly by ABS-CBN and GMA, says Palo, who led overall directing and scenes involving Sta Maria and Joshua Garcia. Co-director Dulu directed the scenes for the younger couples/cast.

Filming in Europe involved 60 locally hired crew and cast members and took about five weeks to complete.

For Palo, shooting in Europe was a dream come true, even with crew limitations, higher costs, extreme cold and uncertain weather conditions, and not having the luxury of going back to reshoot. 

Dulu, on her first shoot abroad, says the learning was all about “being patient, able to adjust and adapt to one another’s working style, ethic and culture, and marrying all of our differences to make it work”.