Local teleseryes: They’re a cultural phenomenon, regardless of where the general public’s current broadcast-channel allegiance lies. (It’s still a two-horse race, in my opinion.)
Teleseryes have transcended through the decades and social and religious barriers. They have made us laugh, cry (a lot), and genuinely care about or hate fictional characters, and we have embraced them and welcomed them into our living rooms as part of our daily routine, even if it sometimes meant skipping the dinner table to eat the night’s grub in front of the TV.
Or at least that’s how I remember spending most of my evenings growing up.
The good news is that neither the clogged arteries of Metro Manila nor rains could ruin your teleserye-viewing schedule. HOOQ has made it easier than ever to watch what you want, when you want.
But these days, so many things are happening around me that I can barely keep up with the stuff on my calendar, let alone the TV shows I intend to watch. The unforgiving traffic in Metro Manila alone can sap all your energy and ruin your evening plans, reducing you to a husk of that sprightly person you looked at in the mirror in the morning. It gets worse sometimes: The seemingly endless waiting stretches exponentially when heavy rains trigger flooding.
The sliver of good news is that neither the clogged arteries of Metro Manila nor heavy downpours could ruin your teleserye-viewing schedule.
As I wrote on an earlier post, subscription video-on-demand services such as HOOQ’s have made it easier than ever to watch what you want, when you want, and on almost any type of mobile device, giving you unprecedented freedom over a giant pool of local and foreign content. And, the last time I checked, HOOQ has amassed 30,000 hours of streaming titles, which is more than you’ll get elsewhere.
You can now watch the latest episodes of flagship GMA telenovelas on HOOQ 24 hours after they air in the Philippines.
As impressive as that sounds, HOOQ isn’t nearly done yet introducing exciting new experiences and providing additional value to its customers. In addition to saving videos for offline playback — which is a huge plus, for obvious reasons — you can now watch the latest episodes of flagship GMA telenovelas on HOOQ 24 hours after they air in the Philippines.
That means you can afford to miss their nightly airings without ever really missing anything in the long term. And, yes, HOOQ’s catch-up episodes, as with all its other series, are entirely commercial-free.
Headlining the list of GMA shows included in HOOQ’s catch-up service are primetime soaps “My Faithful Husband” (which stars Dennis Trillo and Jennylyn Mercado) and “Beautiful Strangers” (Lovi Poe and Heart Evangelista). GMA’s long-running drama series, “The Half Sisters,” is also available on catch-up.
I reckon more will be added in the coming months as our viewing habits continue to shift away from free-to-air TV to on-demand platforms. But as it stands, HOOQ has given me another reason for not regretting cutting the cord on TV.
