ABS-CBN opens new sound stages as it marks 65th year of television

ABS-CBN Corporation has inaugurated its brand new sound stages in San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan to support its efforts towards expanding its audience and content output beyond the Philippines and to foreign audiences.

“We want to bring ABSCBN content to the international stage, and having a state-of-the-art facility and a world-class production team is a big step for us towards that direction and dream,” ABS-CBN President and CEO Carlo Katigbak said noting that this coincided with the firm’s 65th founding anniversary.

ABS-CBN Chairman Mark Lopez added that, “what I’m most proud of about this project is that we’re creating Hollywood-level sound stages which puts us at par with the rest of the world.”

This project was the brainchild of ABS-CBN Chairman Emeritus Eugenio “Gabby” Lopez III, who saw that building the studios is the best way to keep in step with the world’s top entertainment companies, which shoot bigger percentages of their programs and films in sound stages and not in remote locations.

Moreover, the sound stages also enable the company to manage production costs more efficiently.

“Completing the sound stages represents a very major step for ABS-CBN in terms of our ability to create much better production. Through this we can show the world the best of the Filipino,” said Lopez III.

The sound stages represent the beginning of a plan to establish a production hub that include sound stages, backlots, production and post production facilities and offices that will allow both ABS-CBN and Philippine-based productions to match production facilities found elsewhere in the world.

Phase 1 of the production hub includes two 1,500 sq. m. (16,000 sq. ft.) sound stages with a floor to grid height of 30 feet, a breezeway with dressing rooms and various support rooms and the technical facilities in aid of production.

Sitting on 7.7 hectares, the facility includes a visitor’s center, parking facilities and various support buildings. The sound stages also boast of solar panels that help support the energy requirements of the whole facility.