MANILA, Philippines - Yes, we know how Filipino filmmakers rock filmfests abroad.
Lav Diaz, Brillante Mendoza, Pepe Diokno, Raymond Red, Jeffrey Jeturian and Raya Martin are just some of the Pinoy filmmakers who have won awards in Cannes, Toronto, Venice, Rotterdam, etc… And yet no matter how excellent their works are, their audience remains small.
Fortunately, there is now a platform that will showcase the world-acclaimed works of indie filmmakers to a larger and more diverse audience.
Introducing HOOQ (pronounced Hook), an online streaming service that features all the best Filipino movies (indie and mainstream) and drama series, and Hollywood movie and TV fare as well.
HOOQ country manager Jane Cruz-Walker, a former TV executive and a self-confessed movie buff, says there’s a driving interest in Pinoy films, not only by Filipinos but foreign cineastes as well.
Walker says HOOQ is a good venue to share Filipino content to the world. Aside from the Philippines, HOOQ has a presence in Thailand and India.
“HOOQ is a great platform to promote Filipino movies to other nationalities, especially because we’re rolling out in the Asian region. It’s the only platform that offers a wide selection of Filipino content. This is an opportunity for us to show foreign audiences how good our films and even our teleseryes are,” Walker tells The STAR in an interview.
A start-up venture of Singtel, Sony Pictures Television and Warner Bros. Entertainment, HOOQ offers over 30,000 hours of content and over 1,200 Hollywood movies.
Walker says they’ve designed the app with the consumer’s utmost convenience in mind.
“Today, with the mobile lifestyle of Filipino people, when most would like to watch movies on their tablets and cell phones while waiting in the airport, in the salon and even during the traffic, HOOQ is very convenient and reliable. You know, Filipinos are content-savvy, they’re good in finding what they want to watch and there are a lot of options now. With HOOQ, everything is in one platform, so whether you want a throwback of local films, or even the classics from Hollywood, you can watch them all on HOOQ,” Walker says.
Aside from content from their partner studios, HOOQ also carries titles from Miramax, Disney and Dreamworks. Some of the selections include TV staples like Friends, ER, Lost, Smallville and Grey’s Anatomy. Soon, HOOQ will add in top-rated shows like Scandal, Nashville and Mad Men.
HOOQ has also carefully curated a catalogue of award-winning movies from the timeless classics like Lawrence of Arabia, and Good Fellas to modern classics such as Tootsie, Evita and The Social Network and blockbuster hits like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, SpiderMan, Ironman, Captain America and Thor.
For those who love Filipino movies and teleseryes, HOOQ has some of the best.
“For the first time, we have content from ABS-CBN, GMA 7, Star Cinema, Regal Entertainment and Viva films,” Walker says.
The app’s library contains Pinoy box-office hits like One More Chance, Ang Tanging Ina, Bituing Walang Ningning and Metro Manila Film Festival favorites Shake Rattle & Roll and the Mano Po series. For the TV primetime classics, there’s Imortal, Tayong Dalawa, Magkaribal, Mulawin and My Husband’s Lover.
Walker says HOOQ recently went live with a catch-up service for GMA, wherein users will be able to watch the network’s newest primetime TV series within 24 hours of its broadcast. The streaming service kicked off with My Faithful Husband, Beautiful Strangers and Half Sisters.
Barely months in the business, HOOQ says they’ve already been getting a lot of feedback, mostly requests on their Facebook page. To date, the most requested foreign movie is Unknown, starring Liam Neeson. On the local front, One More Chance, starring Bea Alonzo and John Lloyd Cruz, is an all-time favorite.
Another feature that HOOQ is proud of is its expanding library; it constantly updates its new shows and content.
Asked how recent the movies are, Walker says they’re two years behind the current crop of blockbusters.
She admits there are people who would like to watch movies that are shown right away but HOOQ “is not competing in that area.”
On downloading site Torrents, you can stream the most recent movies, but the thing is, it’s illegal.
“We’re not competing in that area because we’d like to help the industry. We pay rights to these movies, to these TV shows and the artists, the people behind it have the right to earn from these, because they’ve actually put their blood and sweat into these things,” Walker explains.
Besides, she says there’s no need to download from Torrents since monthly subscription fees from HOOQ only costs P149. HOOQ is also available to all Globe subscribers.
“ With our very affordable price, there’s no need to resort to Torrents and piracy. At a very low price, you can have access to so many content, whatever device you are using,” she says.
Walker believes that if foreigners discover and watch Filipino content, time will come when the Philippines will start to export its own movies, just like what Korea is doing now.
“We have so many talented actors and filmmakers here and their works are at par with other countries. I think this is already happening, our filmmakers have been winning awards,” Walker says.
And HOOQ is easy to set up, she says. There are two ways where you can access HOOQ: Via an app through your mobile or tablet. It can be found on the App Store (for iOS users) and Google Play Store (for Android users), second, it can be accessed via browser through PC or Mac OS.
PC users can browse using Safari or Firefox. Chrome users need to install Microsoft Silverlight (for free) before being able to access the website and play content. The subscriber can download or access up to five devices with a single account, and two devices can stream simultaneously.
HOOQ works with both wireless Internet and mobile data networks at impressive speed and qualities, Walker says.
“You can adjust the quality of your content in order to control the bandwidth consumption.”
Currently, HOOQ is working on the subtitles that you can toggle via the settings.
Another amazing component of the app is its adaptive streaming feature.
HOOQ reads the strength of your signal and when you have a weak signal, you have the option of downloading up to five movies once you are offline.
“HOOQ is the only premium video service that gives the consumer the option to download up to five titles for offline streaming, which one can easily remove at any point to make room for more,” she says.
“This works well with users who want to keep a set of titles already accessible for when wi-fi networks might be unavailable, they don’t want to incur additional data costs,” she says.