ABS-CBN Corp. reported a 20% decline in profit for the nine months ended September as advertising revenues fell after discounting the impact of last year’s election-related spending.

Net income attributable to parent was P2.27 billion from January to September from P2.85 billion during the same period last year.

For the third quarter, the Lopez-led media company reported a net income of P1.01 billion, up 38% from the P732 million recorded during the same period last year.

Revenues for January to September dropped 5% to P29.51 billion from P31.17 during the nine-month period last year. This decline can be attributed mainly to lower advertising revenues.

“Advertising revenues reached P15.3 billion for the first nine months of the year or 3 percent lower than the P15.8 billion, net of election-related spending, registered during the same period last year,” ABS-CBN said in a statement.

There was “robust growth” however in consumer sales, amounting to P14.2 billion for the nine months, “driven by strong demand for ABS-CBN TVplus digital boxes and an increase in Sky’s Direct-to-Home (DTH) and broadband subscription revenues.” ABS-CBN chief financial officer Aldrin M. Cerrado said in a briefing on Friday that the company has sold more than 3.6 million cumulative DTT boxes as of September.

Revenues from Sky grew 7% to P6.8 billion from P6.4 billion, mainly from the growing number of Sky’s broadband and DTH subscribers.

Mr. Cerrado said that the broadcaster is on track hit its P2.7 billion to P3 billion income target range for this year.

“We are optimistic that we will be able to sustain the momentum until the end of the year to hit our full year net income target of between P2.7 billion to P3 billion,” Mr. Cerrado said in a statement.

ABS-CBN shares on Friday were unchanged at P38.00 apiece. — PPCM









