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GMA Network Inc. on Monday announced that its net income rose nearly
a fifth last year on the back of higher revenues from its local and
international operations.
In a statement to the Philippine Stock Exchange,
GMA Network said consolidated net income grew 19 percent to P2.23
billion last year from P1.96 billion in 2006.
The network’s consolidated gross revenues
reached P12 billion in 2007, 9 percent higher than its P11-billion
revenue the previous year.
The company’s production costs increased only
by 2 percent to P3.8 billion, while consolidated general and
administrative expenses in 2007 amounted to P3 billion, or 15
percent higher than the previous year.
GMA Network maintained its Mega Manila ratings
lead in TV ratings for 2007. Based on Mega Manila TV ratings data
from AGB-Nielsen for 2007, GMA posted an average total day rating of
17.7 percent against ABS-CBN’s 14.3 percent.
Twenty-one out of the top 25 overall TV programs
for 2007 were from GMA, with the top 15 programs all coming from GMA
Network.
Darwin G. Amojelar
Its international unit, GMA Pinoy TV, is also
growing its subscriber base by an additional 100,000 to 265,000 by
year-end.
GMA Life TV would be available this year to
subscribers in the US, Guam, Siapan, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Papua
New Guinea, Diego Garcia, Middle East and North Africa. The network
would also offer these channels to Filipinos in Hong Kong, Australia
and Europe.
The company also continues to improve its
facilities and signal projects in the region in its drive to gain
supremacy in other parts of the country particularly in the south.
Apart from its regional expansion projects, GMA
is also building two state-of-the-art studios within its compound in
Quezon City.
GMA Network launched its IPO last July.
The broadcast company sold 91.346 million primary common shares and
822.1 million PDRs, raising about P7.76 billion in gross proceeds.
About P1.55 billion of the total would go to GMA
Network to finance capital expenditures in the next two years,
including completion of new television studios and regional signal
strengthening and upgrades.
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