Pinoy Business Coach

The third leading TV network, ABC Broadcasting Corp., expects to generate P3 billion in revenues this year, driven by higher ratings of its programs and revenues from newly launched shows.

"We are over P800 million in revenues for last year. We are expecting to hit P3 billion," Ray Espinosa, MediaQuest Holding Co. director and ABC president, said at the sidelines of the Malaya Business Insight 28th anniversary last week.

MediaQuest, a subsidiary of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., started rebuilding the network in March last year although it formally acquired a 75 percent stake in ABC 5, the owner and operator of ABC Channel 5, for P4 billion and MPB Primedia Inc., the block timer for ABC 5 for $16 million only last October.

MediaQuest has allocated at least for P12 billion for capital expenditures and programming in the next four years to achieve its goal of making the network the leading TV station in the country.

Of the total P12 billion, P9 billion to P10 billion will go the expansion of its broadcasting network and building of new facilities. The remaining P2 billion is earmarked for programming.

Manuel V. Pangilinan, Mediaquest chairman, said he expects the network to be in the black in 2014.
 "Last year the network benefited from the elections. It will still grow (this year) but slower than last year. Actually, by the fourth year it should be profitable. Hopefully in the third year, it would break even," he said.

The company yesterday broke ground on the new TV5 studio complex in Mandaluyong on an elevated location that yields better and clearer broadcast signal.

The complex, estimated to cost P2.5 billion, is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The TV5 will also launch its international channel in the early second quarter this year to reach overseas Filipinos in North America, Canada and Guam.

MediaQuest’s partnership with Indosair, an Indonesia television network owned by PLDT’s mother company First Pacific, will allow the former to produce more content for the Indonesian market like telenovelas.
TV5 dominates the weekend primetime, with flagship program Talentadong Pinoy topping the ratings chart for both its Saturday and Sunday runs.

Also posting the highest ratings in weekday primetime slots are Willie Revillame’s Willing Wille and Laugh or Lose.

*Talk about turning around a company.  Filipino ingenuity at it's best!