GMA claims leads in July, August ratings

MANILA, Philippines—GMA Network Inc. edged out its rival ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. in the ratings war during the first half of August, improving on its lead reported in the previous month, according to the publicly listed broadcaster.

In a statement, GMA said it “cornered the highest audience share from all over the Philippines” based on the latest household data of ratings service provider Nielsen TV Audience Measurement.

“From a 2.8-point margin over ABS-CBN in total day average household audience share in National Urban Television Audience Measurement (Nutam) in July, GMA further stretched the gap to 3.2 points in partial August [data] with 34.6 points versus competition’s 31.4 points,” the network said.

According to GMA 7, this margin for the month of August translated to 119,973 households or almost 600,000 more viewers who tune in to GMA 7 over ABS-CBN, based on an average of five viewers per TV household.

The network said that it was leading in the “Urban Luzon” and “Mega Manila” markets, which make up 77 percent and 58 percent of total television households nationwide, respectively.

It also added that it was closing in on ABS-CBN, which leads in the “Urban Visayas” and “Urban Mindanao,” which make up 13 percent and 10 percent of the country’s total urban television households, respectively.

For the airtime block running from 6 p.m. to midnight, GMA 7 was ahead by 1.7 points in Urban Luzon with 34 points against ABS-CBN’s 32.3 points; while in Mega Manila, GMA was ahead by 4.5 points with 35.2 points as against the competitor’s 30.7 during the period.

“The lead of GMA in Urban Luzon translates to 63,061 households or 315,305 more viewers over ABS-CBN during prime time,” the network said, adding that its 4.5-point lead in Mega Manila translated to 134,646 households or 673,230 more viewers over ABS-CBN, again using an average of five viewers per TV household.

For July, GMA 7 had 20 entries in the top 30 programs in Urban Luzon and Mega Manila, it added. GMA 7 also led the overall top 10 weekday afternoon programs in Nutam with six entries.

From a 13.1-point lead in Nutam in the afternoon block last July, the gap grew to 15.9 household share points in partial August with GMA 7 scoring 41.1 points against ABS-CBN’s 25.2 points.

In terms of number of televiewers, the lead of 15.9 points meant that 600,265 households or more than 3 million more viewers nationwide were watching GMA 7’s afternoon block over ABS-CBN during the period, the network said.