ABS-CBN mobile service seen to break even by ’15

MANILA, Philippines—ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp., the media holding company of the Lopez group, expects losses at its newly launched mobile service to end next year, as the projected growth in subscribers would allow it to hit “break even,” a company official said last week.

ABS-CBN chief financial officer Aldrin Cerrado said they needed at least two million subscribers for ABS-CBN mobile, which started to offer prepaid cellular services late last year through a network sharing agreement with Globe Telecom, to halt losses.

Cerrado, who said the break even target was revised downward from the original four million subscribers, said they currently have 250,000 subscribers and may exceed one million by the end of the year.

“Right now, activation is picking up to 2,500 [accounts] per day. We started with around 700 per day,” Cerrado said as he cited increased marketing efforts for the service, which aims to draw subscribers with exclusive and existing content aired on ABS-CBN’s flagship television business.

“There is still a possibility we will hit break even faster than projected,” Cerrado said while he estimated losses at around P900 million.

At present, the mobile service is only available for the prepaid market but Cerrado said they are planning to tap the higher-value postpaid segment by the third quarter of the year.

ABS-CBN draws most of its earnings from television broadcasting.

The company, which competes mainly with GMA Network Inc. for audience share, said last week that profit in 2013 hit P2.1 billion, up 25 percent, as it benefit from a boost in political-related advertising.