CNN Philippines is shutting down its free-television operations in the country after nine years amid mounting financial losses, its owner said Friday.
D. Edgard Cabangon, chairman of ALC Group of Companies and Nine Media Corp., which owns and operates CNN Philippines, confirmed to Manila Standard in a text message that the channel would go off the air soon.
“That was planned last year due to losses,” Cabangon said. “We will concentrate more on our own free TV— Aliw TV.”
In a separate interview with GMA News Online, Cabangon said Nine Media is delaying the termination of its 5-year licensing deal with CNN International, set to expire this December.
“We delayed the closure/termination of the franchise [deal with] CNN International because of our love for our employees,” he said.
The network has an estimated 300 workers.
Cabangon said they would issue an official statement from Nine Media president Benjamin Ramos after the general meeting on Monday.
A CNN Philippines staffer, requesting anonymity, earlier said the company would hold a general meeting on Jan. 29, without disclosing the agenda.
A memo from Nine Media, which The Standard obtained a copy of, requested all personnel to attend the meeting at 10 a.m. in the news operations area.
The memo, signed by Ramos, is expected to address the results of a management-level meeting held earlier this week.
CNN Philippines describes itself as the Philippines’ only predominantly English-language channel on free-to-air television as well as on cable and pay television.
Nine Media signed a deal with Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting System to launch CNN Philippines in March 2015.
Records from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed that Nine Media posted a net loss of P239.72 million in 2022, higher than the P231.39 million it posted in 2021.
The company’s capital deficiency amounted to P455.2 million and P226.2 million as at those dates, the record showed.
“In 2022, the anticipated business and economic recovery back to pre-COVID levels did not materialize,” the company said in its filing.
“The national elections held in May 2022 and the campaign period leading to it, while contributing to some increase in the spending behavior of people, did not significantly impact on the traditional advertising revenues, with the campaign efforts focused on social media platforms with funds channeled to social media influencers, vloggers and content producers,” the company said.
“Post-election, ads sales also failed to materially pick up due to spending holdback from clients and agencies with the ensuing high inflationary regime pushing up consumer prices, curtailing purchasing power,” it added.
Broadcasting on free TV Channel 9, CNN Philippines was the fifth local franchise of US brand CNN (Cable News Network) in Asia, after CNN Indonesia, CNN Türk, CNN Arabic and CNN-IBN (now CNN-News18 in India).
Nine Media is a subsidiary of the ALC Group of Companies, established by the late Ambassador Antonio Cabangon-Chua. The Cabangon-Chua family also owns other media companies such as RPN, Aliw Broadcasting Network, radio stations DWIZ and Home Radio 97.9, the broadsheet BusinessMirror, tabloid Pilipino Mirror, and magazine Philippine Graphic Weekly.
Their other businesses include Citystate Savings Bank, Fortune Life Insurance Co. Inc., Eternal Plans Inc., Citystate Properties and Management Corp. (CPMC), Isuzu GenCars Inc., as well as several hotels and resorts in Metro Manila and the provinces.