Ads, production revenues boosted GMA 2021 income

GMA Network Inc. continued its momentum after growing its net income by 26 percent to P7.57 billion last year, driven by robust revenues from advertising and production.

The publicly listed broadcast network booked the double-digit growth a year after its net income surged by 127 percent to P6 billion in 2020 at the height of the pandemic.

In a regulatory filing on Tuesday, GMA noted its revenues improved by 16 percent to P22.45 billion last year from P19.34 billion in 2020.

This is supported by advertising revenues, which rose by 19 percent to P21.02 billion; and production revenues, which increased by 58 percent to P78.70 million.

Lower subscriptions

However, subscription revenues declined by 14 percent to P786.47 million while revenue from distribution and content provisioning slipped by 34 percent to P41.96 million for the period.

Production costs, meanwhile, were up by 41 percent to P4.88 billion from P3.45 billion year-on-year.

Talent fees and production personnel costs, which increased by 31 percent to P2.25 billion last year from P1.72 billion in 2020, accounted for the bulk of production spending. This is followed by costs related to program and other rights usage, which hiked by 44 percent to P1.01 billion from P703.42 million.

New revenue streams

As of end-December 2021, total assets and liabilities were valued at P24.08 billion and P9.50 billion, respectively. GMA Network chair and CEO Felipe Gozon said last year that its new subsidiary, GMA Ventures Inc., would open up more revenue streams for the company.

In fact, this subsidiary’s capitalization was increased to P1 billion from an initial of P100 million for future investments. Gozon earlier said they had invested in “one or two” startups already.

Apart from this, Gozon said the network would keep on investing in content production, talent management and development and digital TV.

—Tyrone Jasper C. Piad INQ