Race for TV ratings lead remains tight

MANILA, Philippines — TV network giants ABS-CBN Corp. and GMA Network Inc. continue to contest the nationwide ratings lead for the month of July.

In a statement, ABS-CBN claimed it is still the undisputed number one TV network in the country as it pulled in more viewers nationwide compared to other TV networks last month when it garnered an average audience share of 44 percent compared to GMA’s 33 percent.

ABS-CBN’s data came from multinational audience measurement provider Kantar Media which uses a nationwide panel size of 2,610 urban and rural homes.

ABS-CBN said it was also the TV network of choice for households in Metro Manila, where it scored an average audience share of 42 percent against GMA’s 28 percent, as well as in total Luzon (39 percent against GMA’s 37 percent), Total Visayas (51 percent against GMA’s 26 percent), and total Mindanao (53 percent against GMA’s 26 percent).

ABS-CBN reported a net income of P411 million for the first quarter and as of end-July, it has sold 5.5 million boxes of ABS-CBN TVplus since its launch in 2015.

Meanwhile, in a statement on Thursday, GMA Network said it has widened its lead over rival ABS-CBN in nationwide television ratings, citing latest data from Nielsen TV Audience Measurement.

For July, GMA said it posted an average total day people audience share of 41.8 percent in the National Urban Television Audience Measurement, topping ABS-CBN’s 36.7 percent.

“GMA’s solid ratings performance was a result of the network’s continued leadership across all dayparts,” the company said.

“The Kapuso Network continued its dominance in the viewer-rich areas of urban Luzon and Mega Manila, which respectively account for 72 and 59 percent of all urban viewers in the country,” it said.

In the morning block, GMA said it registered 38.6 percent people audience share as against ABS-CBN’s 34.9 percent.

The company said it also posted a bigger margin in the afternoon block with 43.4 percent compared to ABS-CBN’s 35.9 percent.

GMA said it was also ahead of its main competitor in the evening block with an average of 42 percent versus ABS-CBN’s 38 percent.

GMA said Nielsen data is “statistically considered more representative of the total TV population” as it gathers a greater number of sampled homes nationwide in comparison to Kantar Media, with approximately 900 more homes surveyed in total urban and rural Philippines.