IN an effort to further strengthen its presence in the digital stratosphere, Cignal Entertainment, the original production unit of Cignal TV, is partnering with American streaming giant Netflix and is investing P100 million annually over the next two years to produce more original content.

This was announced in a recent briefing by Vitto Lazatin, Cignal TV vice president and head for content management, acquisition and strategy. He said that while Cignal was already producing its own original content that was already airing on the exclusive local channels of the digital satellite provider, as well as its own Cignal Play mobile app, the company intended to produce more movies that could “travel outside the Philippines” and were compelling enough for Netflix to show.

“For years, we’ve been carrying other people’s channels and other people’s programs. By putting ourselves in a position to produce our own content, we are kind of future-proofing ourselves,” Lazatin said.





The Cignal executive also said the advantage of producing their own content was that “there are many different ways to monetize it.”

In the case of “Ang Babaeng Allergic sa WiFi” (The Woman Allergic to WiFi), a film produced by Cignal Entertainment in cooperation with October Train Films and The IdeaFirst Company, Netflix has acquired the international rights to stream it.

The movie, directed by Jun Robles Lana, was popular with millennials when it had its successful theatrical run last year as an entry to the Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino film festival.

“Ang Babaeng Allergic sa WiFi” premiered on Netflix on August 21 and is streaming globally, except in China, Taiwan, Japan and India.

“We believe that content is king and distribution is queen. As such, we are committed to improving and scaling up our original content lineup and are determined to distribute these to all relevant platforms,” said Jane Jimenez Basas, Cignal TV president and chief executive officer.

Cignal currently has a subscriber base of over 2.1 million.