ABS-CBN ad revenues recover to breach P1 billion in March, April

MANILA, Philippines – After a weak start, ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp.’s advertising revenues have slowly recovered, breaching the P1-billion mark in March and April this year despite the continued economic slowdown.

August Benitez, head of Channel 2 sales, said advertising revenues slowed down in the first two months of the year but began to show strength starting March owing to increasing confidence in the network. 

“We started reversing the trend in March. In April, we would have had record numbers had it not been for the Holy week, where advertisers suspend their regular campaigns for most of the week,” Benitez said.

“While others chose to drastically reduce their prices and rates just to be able to grab more ad minutes, we focused on adding value to our client offerings by improving our programs. This strategy has resulted in much larger audience shares for us in all the important timeblocks. So, for the same budgets, we are now able to offer clients more eyeballs, and ultimately more returns on investments,” Benitez added.

Data from Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) nationwide ratings and audience shares for the Feb 1-May 2 period showed that ABS-CBN has built its nationwide leadership to a whopping 44 percent audience share or an increase of 22 percent over its perennial rival.

Oz Trinidad, head of ABS-CBN’s strategic planning, noted that the nationwide advantage is driven even more by the huge lead in the noontime (12 p.m.-3 p.m.) and evening timeblocks (6 p.m.-12 mn).  

ABS-CBN posted an audience share of 48 percent versus the competition’s 36 percent in the noontime block, and an audience share of 47 percent over the competition’s 37 percent in the primetime evening timeslot.

In the first quarter this year, ABS-CBN posted a net profit of P191 million or 21 percent lower than the P242 million recorded the previous level due to the decline in advertising minutes and higher expenses incurred by its cable television unit SkyCable Inc.

SkyCable incurred total expenses of P887 million, bringing consolidated expenses up 28 percent to P4.95 billion. This offset the 24 percent growth in total revenues to P5.29 billion.

Sky Cable contributed P878 million to total revenues but it incurred a net loss of a little less than P20 million during the period under review, Valdueza said.

ABS-CBN’s airtime revenues fell two percent to P2.76 billion as advertising minutes dropped by as much as 20 percent.