For the past 3 months, Brightlight Productions has already invested a tidy sum of money for the production of new shows.
With the shutdown of ABS-CBN, Brightlight Productions has renewed hopes of earning more viewers. With this, the media network was pushed to produce fresh shows, some even featuring Kapamilya artists.
Brightlight Productions, owned by former Congressman Albee Benitez, secured a blocktime deal with TV5, allowing them to air shows with the network.
New TV5 shows that were produced by Brighlight included ‘Sunday Noontime Live’ (SNL), ‘Lunch Out Loud’ (LOL), ‘Sunday Kada’, ‘Oh My Dad’, ‘Rated Korina’, and ‘I Got You’.
As we know, in producing shows, they must invest a huge amount of money for the production. Considering the number of new shows, did Brightlight Productions had a return on investment?
Cutting costs, terminating shows
Accordingly, for the past three months, Albee Benitez already spent about 500 million pesos on the production of new shows.
But it seems that the show’s ratings did not satisfy the network expenses as the management announced the ending of its new programs.
Sunday programs ‘Sunday Noontime Live‘ (SNL) and ‘Sunday Kada’ aired their finale episodes last January 17 while other shows will continue.
SNL out, ASAP in! Manahan reacts
SNL will be replaced by their rival program, ASAP. SNL and ASAP previously had the same time slot that’s why competition between them is tough.
Unfortunately for SNL, their show is not earning enough to sustain the expenses that is why Benitez decided to terminate it.
With this, Johnny “Mr. M” Manahan shared that they were shocked by the sudden decision.
In an interview with PEP, Manahan blamed Benitez for not ‘doing the math’ before producing the show. Accordingly, airing one episode of SNL costs about 3 million pesos.
He also expressed regret for not meddling with the ‘business side’ of the production as he was tasked to focus on the ‘creative side’. Because he could’ve advised Benitez about the possible loss of income if the show pursues.
Mr. M also tried to request the TV5 chairman Manny Pangilinan to give them one last episode to bid farewell, but Pangilinan mentioned that the timeslot was already given to ASAP, the former show that Mr. M used to direct.
ASAP Natin ‘To’ started airing on TV5 on January 24.
