Rival networks claim top spot

MANILA, Philippines—The country’s top television networks continued their intense battle for the lead in nationwide ratings when both released their respective data to support their claims.

GMA Network Inc. and ABS-CBN on Thursday submitted their respective ratings data for the month of September, showing that both are ahead in the nationwide ratings race.

GMA 7 said household audience share in September revealed that the network was the most preferred channel in National Urban Philippines, with an average audience share of 34.1 percent, higher than ABS-CBN’s 30 percent and TV5’s 17.3 percent.

“National Urban Philippines, covering the sub-areas of Urban Luzon (77 percent of total TV households nationwide), Urban Visayas (13 percent of the TV household population), and Urban Mindanao (10 percent of the TV household population), comprises more than nine million households in total,” GMA said in a statement.

“Translated to warm bodies, the entire country has about 45 million viewers, assuming each household comprises five individuals,” the company added.

Based on that assumption, GMA’s margins in the country would translate to almost 800,000 viewers over ABS-CBN, and 3.1 million viewers over TV5.

The numbers provide GMA advertisers the advantage of hitting a higher number of eyeballs at competitive costs.

GMA gets its ratings data from research firm Nielsen, which is more widely used in the country.

For its part, ABS-CBN, owned by the Lopez family, gets its ratings data from Kantar Media.

Kantar Media’s latest ratings survey showed ABS-CBN with a 42-percent audience share in nationwide primetime TV ratings, 12 percentage points ahead of its rival GMA.

“Data from Kantar Media also showed that in Metro Manila, ABS-CBN led all TV channels on primetime with an average audience share of 35 percent vs GMA’s 33 percent,” ABS-CBN said.

ABS-CBN shifted to Kantar Media after filing a case against Nielsen Media Research for failing to comply with its request to investigate alleged cheating and data tampering in TV ratings.

The case is pending in court.