Political debates boost TV network’s ratings

ABS-CBN Corp., the media holding company of the Lopez Group, claimed a lead in nationwide television ratings in April, with a boost coming from debates it hosted for presidential and vice presidential candidates.

GMA Network Inc., in a separate statement, said it had held on to the No. 1 spot in Mega Manila and Urban Luzon, citing a separate third-party research company.

In a statement, ABS-CBN Tuesday said it got an average audience share of 44 percent from combined urban and rural homes, against GMA’s 34 percent, citing data from Kantar Media.

ABS-CBN recorded a big lead in the prime time block, referring to the coveted time slots from 6 p.m. to 12 midnight. This is when most Filipinos watch TV and advertisers put a larger chunk of their investment to reach more consumers effectively.

ABS-CBN said it got a 50-percent average audience share for prime time, against GMA’s 31 percent.

Giving a ratings boost to ABS-CBN was the last leg of the “Pili Pinas 2016 Debates: Presidential Town Hall Debate.”  ABS-CBN said this registered a 40.6-percent rating, the highest rating among all Comelec TV debates. The television network said this even did better than the “Pacquiao-Bradley III” showdown (32.4 percent) in terms of TV ratings.

ABS-CBN’s vice presidential debate “Harapan ng Bise” also performed well, netting 21.4 percent.

For its part, GMA, which uses data from Nielsen TV Audience Measurement,  said it got 40.1 percent in Urban Luzon from April 1 to 30, based on overnight data. ABS-CBN got 30.8 percent while TV5 got 7.9 percent in Urban Luzon.

GMA also claimed the top spot in Mega Manila with 41.9 percent, up by 14 points from ABS-CBN’s 27.9 percent and up by 33.5 points from TV5’s 8.4 percent.

Urban Luzon accounts for 77 percent of all urban TV households in the country, while Mega Manila covers 60 percent.