ABS-CBN Corporation, the country’s leading media and entertainment company, reported PHP17.7 billion consolidated revenues for the first half of 2015, bringing its net income to PHP1.2 billion, 20% higher compared to the same period last year. The company reported higher second quarter revenues of PHP9.3 billion, 11% higher than the revenues generated during the first quarter of this year.
“Our performance during the first half was well within our expectations,” said Aldrin M. Cerrado, the company’s Chief Financial Officer. “We disclosed a guidance of PHP2.4 billion for 2015 and we are about half way there.”
He added that Channel 2 has extended its dominance in terms of national audience shares and ratings with a 52% national audience share at end of June 2015.
According to Kantar Media, the top ten programs for the first half in 2015 for free-to-air television were all produced by ABS-CBN. The company will further boost its audience share once it improves the reception of channel 2 in the Mega Manila area and Central Luzon.
Star Cinema also turned in a very good performance at the box office with PHP1.4 billion in ticket sales generated from the release of 8 movies.
“Consistent with our push towards growing our broadband business, Sky’s broadband subscriber growth has been very strong, increasing by 30% to over 115,000, while our Global business now reaches around 3 million of our fellow Kapamilya overseas,” Cerrado said.
There were also significant margin expansion in the company’s TV and Studio Operations, with our net income margin and EBITDA margin for the segment improving from 11% to 15% and 25% to 27%, respectively.
The company reported that its production costs were lower by 2.3% compared to the same period last year, while total assets rose to PHP68.9 billion as of the end of June 2015 from PHP67.2 billion as of end last year. Its equity base remained flat at PHP26.9 billion as of the end of June 2015 and December 2014.
Ron Valdueza, Group CFO and Head of Corporate Services Group 2 said, “I believe our second half will be just as strong and we should continue to see marked improvements in the performance of our new initiatives.”
ABS-CBN TV Plus digital boxes are now in over 500,000 households and the company expects to breach the 1 million mark by year-end.
“This should have a positive impact on ratings and will open up potential advertising opportunities in our four additional channels, especially the movie channel, ’Cinemo’, and ’Yey’, our cartoon channel,” said Valdueza.
Various adjustments to the strategy for ABS-CBNmobile were also made. While initially lowering the overall subscriber base, it has more than doubled the average revenue per user and resulted in a much higher reloading rate.
The O Shopping Channel is now generating over PHP1.6 million in daily sales, while the educational theme park, KidZania, located at the Fort Bonifacio Global city, recently opened with more than 4,000 visitors during the opening weekend.
