ABS-CBN, GMA claim ratings lead
BROADCAST television rivals GMA Network Inc. and ABS-CBN Corp. again claimed the lead in national TV ratings for March 2016, citing data from different third-party research companies.
GMA said in a statement that based on National Urban Television Audience Measurement (NUTAM) ratings, it had a 36.6- percent household audience share, edging out ABS-CBN’s 36.1 percent and TV5’s 8.2 percent.
GMA gets its data from Nielsen TV Audience Measurement.
ABS-CBN, which uses data from Kantar Media, said it got a national audience share of 44 percent for combined urban and rural homes against GMA’s 35 percent, a separate statement showed.
GMA credited its lead to further gains in its Mega Manila and Urban Luzon strongholds. The two areas account for 77 and 60 percent of all urban TV households in the country.
In Urban Luzon, GMA said it got a 41.5-percent of the market, against 31 percent for ABS-CBN. GMA was also ahead of TV5’s 7.3 percent.
In Mega Manila, GMA got 43.2 percent, higher than ABS-CBN’s 28.2 percent by 15 points, and TV5’s 7.7 percent by 35.5 points.
Moreover, during the Lenten Season (Maundy Thursday to Black Saturday), GMA said its programming was also ahead across all dayparts, including primetime.
GMA secured a 44.1-percent audience share in NUTAM, up 14 percentage points from ABS-CBN’s 30.1 percent and up 38.1 points from TV5’s 6 percent.
For its part, ABS-CBN said it was also leading in the coveted primetime block with an average audience share of 49 percent compared to 33 percent for GMA.
“The primetime block is the most important part of the day when most Filipinos watch TV and advertisers put a larger chunk of their investment in to reach more consumers effectively,” ABS-CBN said.
Nielsen has a nationwide urban sample size of 2,000 homes; while in Mega Manila, it increased its sample size to 1,200 homes effective this year. Kantar Media uses a nationwide panel size of 2,610 urban and rural homes that “represent 100 percent” of the total Philippine TV viewing population.
