ABS-CBN income jumped 76% in H1

ABS-CBN Corp., the media holding company of the Lopez family, saw earnings jump in the first half of 2016, bolstered by revenues from political advertising ahead of the May 9 polls.

ABS-CBN said net income during the period jumped 76 percent to P2.1 billion while revenues hit P20.9 billion, up 19 percent.

Aldrin Cerrado, ABS-CBN’s chief financial officer, said regular advertising, which removes the effect of political ads, was up 12 percent during the period.

“The improvement in our ratings, coupled with the newly implemented cost per individual rating point pricing scheme, contributed to the increase in our advertising revenues,” Cerrado said.

ABS-CBN said second quarter revenues hit P11.2 billion, 20 percent higher than the revenues generated during the first quarter of this year.

The company’s Digital Terrestrial Television or DTT had 1.3 million boxes sold as of the end of June.

“We are confident that we will hit our profit guidance for the year,” said ABS-CBN Group CFO Ron Valdueza.

He said earlier that full-year 2016 profit would hit P3.2 billion to P3.5 billion.

ABS-CBN also underscored gains across its other businesses.

It said educational theme park, KidZania, which has partnered with more than 65 establishments, reached over 150,000 attendance since the beginning of the year.

The O Shopping Channel is now generating over P2.2 million in daily sales.

“We recognize that the industry we are operating in is changing rapidly and we continue to make significant investments toward digital transformation and innovation,” Valdueza said.