Philippines' leading broadcaster expands
Philippines' leading broadcaster expands
MANILA (Reuter): The top TV and radio company in the Philippines, ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp., will spend about 550 million pesos (US$21.15 million) on an expansion plan this year to boost its provincial and overseas operations, officials said on Wednesday.
ABS-CBN, which garnered 47 percent of the industry's total advertising revenue last year, also plans to strengthen its film- making operations, company president Eugenio Lopez told a stockholders' meeting.
He said the company will invest 500 million pesos ($19.23 million) to expand its provincial radio operations, including the acquisition of new stations in urban centers like Cebu and Bacolod in the Visayas and Davao in Mindanao.
"We have a very small share of that market. We want to take up as much as a 20 percent share on a nationwide basis," Lopez later told reporters.
ABS posted a 62 percent rise in net profit to 976 million pesos ($37.54 million) in 1994 against 600.6 million pesos ($23.1 million) in 1993.
It is targeting net profit of over one billion pesos ($38.46 million) this year, about a quarter of it in the first three months, Lopez said. He added that preliminary first quarter income results show the company is within its targets.
Lopez said ABS-CBN is projected to earn revenue of up to 20 million pesos ($770,000) from the television coverage of a national and local election campaign ahead of the May 8 polls.
He said the company plans to spend $2.0 million for its fledgling international operation.
ABS-CBN's television programs are beamed via satellite to some parts of the United States through the facilities of a subsidiary, ABS-CBN International, and Lopez said they plan to expand their satellite coverage on the West Coast.
"With our diversification efforts, ABS-CBN is moving closer to servicing two-thirds of the world," he told shareholders.
The company, through its movie outfit Star Cinema, plans to produce about 20 movies this year, or about double the number it produced in 1994 which contributed 20 million pesos ($770,000) to ABS-CBN's net income.
The broadcaster will also start distributing Star Cinema films in Europe and the United States this year through Videopost, its video arm, Lopez said.
He said ABS-CBN will also begin the distribution in the domestic market of Hollywood movies by MCA Productions Inc.
This is expected to contribute about 20 million pesos ($770,000) annually to ABS-CBN coffers, he added.