GMA’s 9-month income soars to P3.1 billion

GMA Network, Inc. on Tuesday reported its net income surged 72% to an alltime high of P3.11 billion for the first nine months of 2016, propelled by the growth of its airtime revenues due to election-related spending.

For the third quarter, GMA’s profits grew at a modest 4% to P733.029 million from P705.804 million a year

“GMA Network and its subsidiaries sealed nine months’ financial results recording a milestone in terms of financial performance with net income after tax breaching the P3-billion mark, an all-time high in the history of the company,” GMA said in its quarterly report filed with the Philippine Stock Exchange. GMA posted a P2.1-billion profit for 2015.

Net revenues of the company for the third quarter reached P4.042 billion; while production costs stood at P1.692 billion. The media giant reported a P2.350 billion gross profit and P1.350 billion in general and administrative expenses.

GMA reported consolidated revenues of P12.803 billion for the nine months ended September, up 24% over same period last year buoyed by the windfall from the May national and local elections and supplemented by the improvement in sales from recurring placements.

“The presence of political advocacies and advertisements equivalent to about P1.5 billion was a major factor for this year’s sterling top-line performance. Nonetheless, even without the extraordinary influx, consolidated sales from regular advertisers advanced from last year by more than P1 billion or 12%,” GMA said.

Airtime revenues and inflows from subsidiaries and other sources buoyed the first nine months of the year with double-digit percentage increases in their top lines versus the prior year’s performance, it added.

GMA said revenues from television and radio airtime grew 25% to P11.672 billion. Profit from production was also up during the January to September period to P1.130 billion from P940 million recorded a year ago. —