GMA Network Inc. and ABS-CBN Corp. reported lower profits in the first half in the absence of political advertisements this year.
GMA Network, the company behind Channel 7, said net income in the first half fell 35 percent to P1.552 billion from a year ago, because of the lack of political ads in 2017.
Political advocacies and advertisements contributed P1.488 billion to the company’s topline in the first half of 2016, when the presidential election was held.
The network’s recurring revenues amounted to P7.698 billion in the first half, ahead by 6 percent over the same period last year.
“We will still try to accomplish our yearend financial target as we have entered the second half of the year,” GMA Network chairman and chief executive Felipe Gozon said. The company’s profit guidance for the year was over P3.9 billion.
The network posted a net income of P3.65 billion in 2016, up from P2.13 billion in 2015.
Rival ABS-CBN Corp. posted a net income of P1.2 billion in January to June this year, down by 41 percent from P2.1 billion a year ago.
ABS-CBN chief financial officer Aldrin Cerrado said excluding political ads, ABS-CBN’s net income fell 1 percent from a year earlier.
The company’s revenues reached P19.34 billion, down 8 percent from last year’s P20.9 billion.
“As expected, our second-quarter earnings performance was stronger than our first quarter, and we are particularly pleased to have been able to control overall costs for the first half of the year,” Cerrado said.
He said there was softening in the market in terms of advertising during the period.
Cerrado said company ended the first half with 3.2 million ABS-CBN TVplus digital TV boxes sold. The service was launched in 2015.
“Our progress with the DTT initiative has also been evident in its ratings performance. Cinemo and Yey! channels have more than doubled their audience shares to 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively, compared to the same period last year,” Cerrado said.
ABS-CBN Group CFO Ron Valdueza said Sky’s revenue grew 9 percent to P4.6 billion driven by the continued increase in broadband and DTH subscribers. As of end June, Sky had over one million subscribers.