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ABS-CBN earnings dip, sees profit in 2017

ABS-CBN Corporation, the country’s leading media and entertainment company, posted a drop in net income to R2.3 billion in the first nine months of 2017 from R2.85 bullion in the same period last year — which benefited from political ads prior to the May elections.

The firm reported R29.5 billion in consolidated revenues for the first nine months of 2017, also lower than the R31.1 billion generated in the same period last year.

“Advertising revenues picked up during the third quarter and we are optimistic that we will be able to sustain the momentum until the end of the year to hit our full year net income target of between R2.7 billion to R3 billion,” said ABSCBN Chief Financial Officer Aldrin Cerrado.

Advertising revenues reached R15.3 billion for the first nine months of the year or 3 percent lower than the R15.8 billion, net of election-related spending, registered during the same period last year.

This decline in the recurring ad sales, however, was tempered by an 11 percent increase in consumer sales, which totaled R14.2 billion over the same period.

The robust growth in consumer sales was driven by strong demand for ABS-CBN TVplus digital boxes and an increase in Sky’s Direct-to-Home (DTH) and broadband subscription revenues.

“ABS-CBN continues to be the leader in national audience share and ratings, with 51.7 percent total national audience share, based on Kantar Media TV Audience Measurement as of end September 2017,” ABS-CBN Group Chief Financial Officer Ron Valdueza said.

He added that, “this resulted from the popularity of our programs with ratings of over 38 percent for primetime soaps … The sharp increase in the number of DTT households also helped boost audience share.”

During the first three quarters of 2017, Sky’s revenue also grew by 7 percent to R6.8 billion from R6.4 billion over the same period last year. The revenue increase was attributed to the growing number of Sky’s broadband and DTH subscribers.

“We expect the strong takeup in our DTH and broadband services to continue as we invest in expanding and upgrading our network,” said Valdueza.

Star Cinema, meanwhile, generated close to R1.5 billion in gross receipts from movies produced during the first three quarters of 2017 while Kidzania, the company’s educational theme park, earned R324 million revenues from over 224,000 visitors since the beginning of the year. (JAL)