MANILA, Philippines - GMA Network Inc. (GMA-7) managed to minimize the decline in its net income to about four percent in the first half of the year after recovering strongly from the financial hurdle encountered by the company last year.
The company reported yesterday that its net income amounted to P1.014 billion from January to June this year or P41 million lower than the P1.055 billion earnings booked in the same period last year.
Amid the slight decline, GMA chairman and chief executive officer Felipe Gozon said in a press conference that the company is confident that it would be able to deliver its projected income target of P2 billion.
“We saw a vast improvement in GMA’s financial performance during the first half of 2012. The Company was able to recover from last year’s financial hurdle at a much faster rate against the backdrop of the foreign market’s recovery,” Gozon stressed.
He pointed out that the company’s outlook for balance year 2012 remains on a positive note.
“Indicators for economic growth are becoming more apparent in Asia and the Philippines particularly in the domestic trade market,” he added
Aside from initial placements of political advocacies that started in July, he explained that GMA also saw growth in regular advertisers’ accounts.
GMA-7 reported that consolidated gross revenues inched up one percent to P6.790 billion in the first half of the year. GMA 7 maintained last year’s revenue performance, while leading news channel GMA News TV garnered a 15 percent top line improvement followed by radio revenues with seven percent and regional TV with eight percent.
GMA International, flagged as one of the company’s main growth areas, increased subscription and licensing revenues by two percent in dollar terms compared to the same period in 2011. The growth rate, however, slid to one percent in peso terms due to the appreciation of the Philippine peso against the US dollar.
GMA International pushed the subscriber count of flagship channel GMA Pinoy TV (GPTV) by double-digit or 12 percent to 314,000, which translates to over two million viewers worldwide. The Filipino lifestyle channel GMA Life TV (GLTV), meanwhile, now has 118,000 subscribers, or over one million viewers.
Meanwhile, GMA News TV International Edition is now available in Australia, Canada, Guam, Japan, Madagascar, and the UAE. The GMA international news channel will also be launched soon in Europe, Malaysia, and the US.