Television broadcast giants were also big winners in the 2019 midterm polls.
ABS-CBN Corp. and GMA Network Inc. both saw an earnings boost in the first semester of the year on the back of advertising sales ahead of the May elections.
In a stock exchange filing, ABS-CBN said it saw profit from January to June this year almost double to P1.47 billion from P741 million in the same period last year. GMA’s net income also rose 10 percent to P1.34 billion.
The big boost came from political advertising. ABS-CBN said advertising revenues alone jumped 17.8 percent to P11.29 billion while GMA’s ad sales went up 8 percent to P7.26 billion.
Stripping out political ads, ABS-CBN’s advertising sales would have increased by 3.2 percent while GMA would have declined 3 percent.
As a result, ABS-CBN’s total revenue for the period rose 9.8 percent to P20.8 billion while GMA’s rose 7 percent to P7.91 billion.
Both companies also controlled their costs, with operating expenses for ABS-CBN rising by 6 percent to P6.01 billion. GMA’s cost and expenses rose 2 percent to P18.87 billion.
ABS-CBN also shed some light on its foray into digital TV, including the iWant app, which ended the first semester with an average of 1.5 million active users a month. Total revenue from digital amounted to P580 million, up 6.8 percent.
ABS-CBN’s Sky revenues went up by 5.9 percent as it recorded higher broadband and satellite TV subscriptions.