TV5, ABS-CBN call off P4 billion investment deal

MANILA, Philippines — Pangilinan-led TV5 Network Inc. has shut the door on revisiting its investment deal with Lopez-owned ABS-CBN Corp., as the two parties look to just build on their content sharing agreements moving forward.

PLDT Inc. chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan yesterday said he has no plans to renegotiate the botched P4-billion agreement with ABS-CBN that would have allowed the Lopez-led network to return to free TV in the absence of a legislative franchise.

“I think we have mutually terminated discussions with respect to investments, either investments in Sky Cable Corp. and investments in ABS-CBN,” Pangilinan said.

In August, TV5 parent MediaQuest Holdings Inc., a PLDT subsidiary, forged an investment deal with ABS-CBN. Under the agreement, ABS-CBN was supposed to acquire 34.99 percent of TV5 for P2.16 billion and buy a convertible note for P1.84 billion.

In exchange, MediaQuest’s Cignal Cable Corp. signed a sale and purchase agreement to obtain 38.88 percent of ABS-CBN’s Sky Cable for P7.5 billion. Both deals, however, had to be aborted in September on mounting political and regulatory pressure against ABS-CBN.

SAGIP party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta had insisted that the Philippine Competition Commission probe the transaction signed by the broadcast giants, even though the deals fall below the P50 billion threshold for mandatory antitrust review.

Marcoleta voted against the renewal of the legislative franchise of ABS-CBN, forcing it to shut down its airwaves and abandon free TV in 2020.

With the investment agreement terminated, Pangilinan said TV5 and ABS-CBN would just focus on expanding their existing contracts for block time and content sharing.

“Before that particular transaction – which has already been terminated – we have already been in discussions with ABS-CBN about content being shown on TV5. That discussion continues to this day about content, but limited to entertainment alone,” Pangilinan said.

“That discussion continues in various forms, whether in block time, licensing of existing (shows) and corporate actions. There are no investments involved in the discussion,” he added.

The National Telecommunications Commission, for its part, wants to limit block time materials in licensed broadcast networks to only 50 percent of their daily airtime.

Block time refers to the broadcast industry practice of selling portions of airtime to show content and programs that are made by another media firm, such as TV5’s airing of ABS-CBN materials.