TV-5 sees 3-fold hike in ad revenues

MANILA, Philippines -  TV 5, the broadcast media outfit of Mediaquest which is in turn a wholly owned subsidiary of the PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund, expects advertising revenues to grow three-fold this year.

Company officials said that last year, their ad revenues grew by 300 percent compared to 2009. “We expect the same growth rate this year,” they added.

TV5 president Ray Espinosa said that they are also hoping to grab 10 percent of the P30 billion total ad spend in the country in a few years’ time. Ad spend has been growing by five percent every year.

“But of course, we have other revenue streams such as subscriptions and international,” TV5 executive vice president and chief operating officer Roberto Barreiro added.

Espinosa explained that they will use the content produced by TV5 for various platforms, including television, Internet, cable, and mobile.

By May of this year, TV5 will be airing its first international broadcast. “We will be in North America by May, and then other countries will follow,” he said.

TV5 earlier unveiled its 24-hour news channel called News5 via free-to-air transmission on Channel 41.

It said that true to its commitment to ignite a new kind of firebrand journalism that goes beyond traditional news reporting, News5 rises to the challenge of bringing comprehensive and up-to-the-minute news by launching a massive 360-degree convergence of various multimedia platforms to deliver relevant and real-time news updates to Filipinos all across the globe.

As this developed, Espinosa said that from 126,000 subscribers to date, Mediaquest direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television service Cignal aims to double its subscriber base this year.

In an interview, Espinosa also raised concern about government’s plan to require broadcast companies to shift from analog to digital transmission by 2015.

He said that while TV5 is already digital-ready, the viewing public may be put at a disadvantage because there is only a very small percentage of the Philippine population which has or can afford to own digital television units.

“Once we start airing digital, those who do not have set-top boxes can no longer receive digital broadcast transmission. Somebody has to pay the cost. Even the US government subsidized the shift. Since ours is free-to-air, there is no way that we will subsidize the cost of the boxes. And I don’t think government will subsidize,” he added.