ABS-CBN Concedes defeat in this year's ratings war
ABS-CBN concedes defeat in this year’s ratings war
BY VG CABUAG
ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp, the country’s largest network, is conceding its defeat in this year’s ratings war, saying there is too little time, barely two months to wrest the lead from GMA Network Inc.
Randolph Estrallado, chief financial officer of ABS-CBN, said "it’s about time to lower expectations. Airtime revenues for the rest of the year will be low. I’m not too optimistic about growth in terms of airtime revenues".
Next year, he said, the network would still capitalize on soaps and will release two new series featuring love tandem of two of its most famous stars and a remake of the remake of Gulong ng Palad, a hit in the early 80s.
Since late last year, GMA won the ratings war, gaining from strength to strength, with its new soaps shooting to the top-slot.
ABS-CBN’s audience share for the third quarter was 35 percent, a slight improvement from 34 percent from the previous quarter. Its rival has 47 percent, from 46 percent from the previous quarter, boosted by fantasy series Darna and Encantadia.
Among the top ten prime time programs, only Pinoy Big Brother made it with the rest aired by GMA.
"We need to get the (top) prime time slot next year," he said, adding that they now plan to have a second season for its reality show due to high rating.
ABS-CBN, which for years has been using the current ratings as its barometer of its popularity, said they do have problems with the ratings as it only measures viewership in Metro Manila.
Estrallado said they are still waiting for the surveying firms, such as AGB Philippines, to come up with a formula that will determine the viewership nationwide.
The company claimed they continue to lead in Cebu, Dagupan, and Davao, against GMA 7, which still has to beef-up its operations and signal in the provinces.
As a result of its lower ratings, net income of ABS-CBN continued to decline, posting a third consecutive drop in the third quarter to P344 million from the previous P734 million, down by 53 percent.
What drove profits, according to Estrallado, were its international operations from The Filipino Channel, boosted by the license fees from the migration of its North American direct to home subscribers to DirectTV.
Courtesy of: Malaya Website
