July 6, 2011, 2:55pm
By JULIEN MERCED C. MATABUENA
Christine Fellowes, E!'s Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Universal Networks International
MANILA, Philippines – Hollywood entertainment and celebrity lifestyle channel E! Entertainment Television has already been introduced to 82 million households in 115 countries in 26 languages. “So having done that, we thought it was time to come on over to the Philippines,” Australian Christine Fellowes, the channel's Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Universal Networks International told the media during the glitzy lunch gathering at the Manila Peninsula on July 5 to mark its Philippine launch.
In connection with this, E! fans can now look forward to seeing some of our most famous local celebrities on the channel via one of its segment.
“Oh, you know what, yes! We’ve [already] done some interviews. Can I tell you who? You don’t have to help me with the names,” Fellowes enthused in an interview with Bulletin Entertainment.
She enumerated, “KC Concepcion, we’ve done an interview with her for ‘E! News.’ Derek Ramsey, Iza Calzado [and] Sam Milby.
“So we’ve already started to do interviews with talents from here in the Philippines. We’ll continue to make sure that we’re covering, you know, whatever’s going on in the Philippines on ‘E! News,’” she said
In a separate interview with select members of the press, Fellowes said that model Georgina Wilson has been tapped as an E! correspondent.
She added, “We’ve met quite a few talents that came from here. We actually have a production crew who had been doing screen tests here today because we want to make sure that we’re covering big celebrity news [through local correspondents].”
E! Philippines had a soft launch on July 1 and can be seen exclusively via SKYCABLE's channel 57 starting July 5, Fellowes told Bulletin Entertainment. However, this will be initially available only to Gold and Silver subscribers.
The current program lineup, as presented to the media during the official launch, includes “E! News,” "E! News Asia,” “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” "Fashion Police”,” E! True Hollywood Story,” "Kourtney and Kim Take New York," "Khloe & Lamar," "The Dance Scene" and “Live from the Red Carpet” and many others. The channel will be airing all the latest episodes of these programs locally, simultaneously with the US.
However, Fellowes implied that the channel won't be producing local programs anytime soon.
“The way that international channels came to develop is that they start with a[n] international [program lineup], and they become local over time. We will take the same approach. With E!, the channel is about Hollywood and celebrities… which means most of it [content] would be derived from Hollywood,” she explained.
“But then we launched ‘E! News Asia,’ which is a way for us to cover [not only] Filipino [but also other Asian] celebrities and events, from launches [to] premieres. As we get [more] developed and become bigger, then we can start to look at programming that’s specifically for the Philippines market. So it’s also like a safe approach,” Fellowes added.
Prior the arrival of the channel in the Philippines, E! programs have already been airing locally on channels ETC, 2nd Avenue and Velvet Channel.
With this, Fellowes clarified, “They will continue to air [the programs] until they finish all the remaining episodes. And then all of the new programming that is being produced by E! will be available first on E! Entertainment exclusively.”
“We have huge expectations of the market. We’re really excited to be here,” she said, adding that this especially since the most number of visits on E!’s official website outside the US comes from the Philippines.
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