ABS-CBN, GMA both claim ratings lead

ABS-CBN Corp. claimed a lead in national television ratings for February this year while main rival GMA Network Inc. said it cornered the lion’s share in urban viewership.

In a statement, ABS-CBN said it had cornered a national audience share of 46 percent against GMA’s 33 percent. This was based on data from Kantar Media.

For its part, GMA said it was the most watched TV station, based on National Urban Television Audience Measurement (Nutam), with an average of 43.6 percent against ABS-CBN’s 37.9 percent. GMA, for its part, uses data from Nielsen TV Audience Measurement.

Competition was more pronounced in Luzon, especially in the capital district.

ABS-CBN said it had captured 40 percent of the audience share in Metro Manila versus GMA’s 28 percent. In Total Luzon, it claimed 42 percent while GMA got 35 percent.

GMA said it had cornered 52.1 percent of “total day people audience share” in Mega Manila, including Metro Manila, against ABS-CBN’s 27.6 percent. By the same measure, it got 49.1 percent of Urban Luzon versus ABS-CBN’s 31.4 percent.

ABS-CBN kept its traditionally wide lead in Total Visayas (56 percent against GMA’s 27 percent) and Total Mindanao (52 percent against GMA’s 31 percent).

Moreover, ABS-CBN said it was ahead in the coveted primetime block. Its average audience share here hit 51 percent, higher than GMA’s 31 percent, for February.

“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 in a statement. —MIGUEL R. CAMUS