Accessibility, multigenre content behind podcast’s rising popularity

“Love Me Hater”

While the live performing arts and other traditional forms of entertainment media like movies and television shows have all but stopped because of the COVID-19 pandemic, creative content in the digital space continues to thrive.

Given the current limitations in the industry, artists, celebrities and creators have been channeling their efforts into finding new ways to utilize social media and digital platforms as outlets for self-expression and tools for people engagement.

Some of the popular forms of online entertainment today include livestreamed concerts, vlogs, TikTok videos and web series with scaled-down productions.

But aside from those, podcasts—episodic audio content series that entertain, educate or delve into any given topic—have also become more commonplace as of late. One media network tapping that market is Connect, a local start-up company that aims to produce “multigenre entertainment content in the podcasting space.”

“Podcasts are easy to consume. Studies have shown that podcast listeners stream podcasts while they’re multitasking—doing chores, working and driving,” Connect founder Glad Jacinto said in a statement. “More importantly, podcasts are free. They’re easy to access, download and stream, anytime and anywhere.”

Connect’s most popular offering yet is “Love Me Hater,” the debut installment of the “Quaranthing” series—a narrative video podcast that features fictional stories conceived during the lockdown.

Written and directed by filmmaker Siege Ledesma and starring theater artists Bibo Reyes and Gab Pangilinan, the series tells of James Jimenez, a cocky vlogger and film school graduate who gets heckled and challenged into a debate by an enraged teleserye head writer, Marga Meneses, during one of his livestreams criticizing local soaps. She hopes that “Love Me” can provide something that goes beyond escapism.

“The pandemic … has revealed the worst in people… [but there’s also] hope, bayanihan, empathy,” she said of the inspiration behind “Love Me.”