Broadcast company ABS-CBN Corp. opened an indoor amusement park in Quezon City to generate more revenues and grow its booming consumer business.
Studio XP is a unique themed attraction cum experience store which has three studios”•fantasy, reality and retail”•and a total of 15 attractions situated in a sprawling 1,400-square-meter site at Trinoma Mall.
“We hope it to become one of the key drivers for the business,” ABS-CBN Themed Experiences head Cookie Bartolome told reporters, referring to Studio XP.
Bartolome said ABS-CBN was considering to build an outdoor Studio XP in the future. She said right now, it was safer to do an indoor attraction, given the unpredictable weather in the country.
“Given the weather condition, having a more controlled environment, like an indoor attraction, is still safer for us,” she said, adding that the company was leveraging on the strong foot traffic of Trinoma Mall, which is owned by Ayala Land Inc.
Bartolome said ABS-CBN was open to partnership with any real estate developer for the future Studio XP.
“We’re bringing the content and hopefully, we’re also able to bring foot traffic to their places. They have a natural foot traffic but I think we also have the power to be able to pull more people because of the attractions and the stars that we bring in the events,” she said.
The country’s leading media and entertainment company was shifting its focus into consumer business to monetize its content beyond advertising.
ABS-CBN’s consumer business is generated from three types of businesses, including subscription, ticketed experiences and durable goods.
The subscription business, which includes cable and broadband provider Sky and The Filipino Channel, is the largest contributor to the company’s consumer sales.
The ticketed experiences category, which includes movies, concerts, mall events, studio tours and mini-theme park Kidzania, is the second largest consumer business sales contributor.
ABS-CBN president Carlo Katigbak earlier said the company’s consumer businesses contributed P17 billion in annual revenues or 45 percent of the total. The remaining 55 percent was generated from advertising.
ABS-CBN reported a net income of P741 million in January to June, down from P1.25 billion in the same period last year. Consolidated revenues reached P18.9 billion from advertising and consumer sales, down by 2.1 percent year-on-year.