Broadcast network ABS-CBN Corp. is building 10 Hollywood-style studios in Bulacan province until 2016 in a bid to cut production costs and improve the quality of television shows.
ABS chairman Eugenio Lopez III said the network had started building sound stages on a 15-hectare lot in San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan.
“I think by the end of the year, we should be finished with our first five sound stages and by the end of next year, probably we have 10 sound stages already,” Lopez said.
The broadcast firm said in 2013 it would invest P6 billion for the construction of the sound stages.
The network said it aimed to save about 65 percent to 75 percent in shooting location costs, with the construction of the modern sound stages.
About 80 percent of ABS-CBN’s production is remote and only 20 percent is shot in studio.
“We will change it to 80 percent studio, and 20 percent remote,” Lopez said.
“When we shoot in the new sound stages, the quality of our production would be very different from what it is today. So it’s not just improving our cost but improving our production, and the quality of our production,” he said.
Lopez said the company was also in talks with foreign consultants to improve the quality of TV shows production.
The broadcasting network earlier said it would invest about P8.3 billion for capital expenditure and acquisition of film and program rights this year.
The funding requirement will be financed by proceeds from bond issuance as well as from internally generated funds.
ABS-CBN raised P6 billion in February 2014 from the sale of fixed-rate bonds with a tenor of seven years at 5.335 percent per annum.
ABS-CBN earned P2 billion on P33.5-billion revenues last year.