GMA 7 sees better sales this year

GMA Network Inc. is banking on regular advertisements to drive profit growth for 2013 even as campaign-related placements start to trickle in, providing a welcome boost to revenues.

At a press briefing, GMA Network chair Felipe L. Gozon said advertising revenue growth has come mainly  from the company’s regular clients, made up of major multinationals in the fast-moving consumer goods or FMCG space.

“In our case, political ads as a percentage of total sales is just 8 to 9 percent,” Gozon told reporters on Friday.

Gozon said total sales from the start of the year to March 21 have grown more than 31 percent over the same period last year. For March, which still has more than a week to go, sales have reached P1.18 billion, already exceeding March 2012 sales that totaled P1.1 billion.

“This is recurring advertisers that are increasing placements,” Gozon said, adding that 70 percent of GMA’s total ad minutes for the year have already been sold to advertisers.

“Maybe this is because the Philippine economy is growing and (advertisers) want a piece of that action,” he said.

On Friday, GMA Network reported that net income for 2012 slumped to P1.62 billion, down 5 percent year-on-year.  Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (ebitda) reached P3.4 billion, up 10 percent from the year before.

The company said its airtime sales grew 7 percent to P12.7 billion, representing 91 percent of the firm’s total gross revenues.