ABS-CBN Corp. reported its net income slumped 39.7% to P1.91 billion last year, as revenues from advertisers slipped and production costs increased.
In a regulatory filing, the Lopez-led media giant said total consolidated revenues dipped 1.4% to P40.13 billion in 2018, mainly due to the 3.4% decline in advertising revenues to P20.38 billion.
“Advertising revenues decreased by P716 million or 3.4% lower, attributable to fewer advertising placements from the year. Consumer sales increased by P149 million, mainly resulting from a 26% increase in ABS-CBN TVPlus boxes sold year-on-year,” the company said.
ABS-CBN said it sold a total of 2.5 million TVPlus boxes in 2018, an increase of 26.3% from the sales made in 2017. The total number of ABS-CBN TVPlus boxes sold since 2015 stood at 6.8 million as of end-2018. The company’s costs and expenses also went up 3.7% to P37.934 billion, as it spent P206 million more for license fees for sports programs and P140 million more for film rights amortization.
However, revenues from its film and music segments went down 0.3% in 2018 due to a weak movie results in the first half of the year. Revenues from its international business also fell 4.6% after it shuttered its money remittance and cargo businesses, reducing revenues by P159 million. The company’s satellite and broadband business SkyCable also slumped to a loss in 2018, ending with a net loss of P340 million from a net income of P123 million in 2017.
“SkyCable’s revenue decreased by P195 million or 2.1% year-on-year. The decline in SkyCable’s performance was triggered by the decrease in cable subscriber count by 69,000. In total, subscriber count of Sky increased by 489,000, significantly attributable to direct-to-home subscribers,” it said.
ABS-CBN’s Digital and Interactive Media segment, which covers its online and mobile platforms, recorded a slimmer net loss of P181 million during the full year from P441 million in 2017.
But its Consumer Products and Experience segment, or the ABS-CBN business involved with live events, theme parks and stores, posted a bigger net loss of P102 million from last year’s P82 million. — Denise A. Valdez
