ABS-CBN distributing more content to South America, Africa, Asia

MORE THAN a month after being denied a franchise, network giant ABS-CBN has pivoted and shifted its focus to expanding its distribution of shows to countries in South America, Africa, and Asia.

Among the shows that will be making their journey to other continents are Ang Probinsyano, Kadenang Ginto, Dahil May Isang Ikaw, and The General’s Daughter. In total, 14 shows will broadcast in the African continent while the Jericho Rosales and Kristine Hermosa starrer, Dahil May Isang Ikaw, which ran from 2009 to 2010, will be broadcast in Ecuador starting this month.

Dahil May Isang Ikaw is the third ABS-CBN show to be broadcast in Ecuador after Bridges of Love and Pangako Sa’Yo.

It can be argued that Pangako Sa’Yo, which ran from 2000 to 2002 in the Philippines, laid the groundwork for ABS-CBN’s syndicating its content outside of the Philippines as it has aired in Kenya, Malaysia, and Singapore. It was so popular that Cambodia made its own version in 2013. The Philippines remade the series in 2015 starring Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo.

To date, ABS-CBN content has reached around 50 territories around the world, amounting to about 50,000 hours of content, according to a company release.

The focus on exporting content is one of a series of shifts that has happened in the network in the last few weeks after its franchise was not renewed by Congress. Many of the network’s shows have been moved online, with Star Music launching a kids YouTube channel and the introduction of Kapamilya Online Live which will livestream ABS-CBN content on its Facebook and YouTube pages in early August.

The shutdown has also resulted in mass layoffs, with entire departments being let go. Even prominent ABS-CBN personalities and newscasters like Korina Sanchez-Roxas and Ces Orena-Drilon, among many others, had to be dropped by the network.

ABS-CBN also posted its first-ever loss as a publicly listed company, amounting to P3.9 billion during the first half of the year, attributed to the ongoing pandemic shrinking advertising budgets and the closure of the network, according to a company disclosure on the Philippine Stock Exchange last week. This was a steep decline from its reported P1.47-billion net income last year.

ABS-CBN has been publicly listed since 1992. — Zsarlene B. Chua