ABS-CBN laying off 100 workers amid TV industry-wide decline in revenues

Over four years after its free-to-air broadcast business was shuttered during the Duterte administration, listed media company ABS-CBN Corporation is being hurt by an industry-wide decline in advertising revenues, forcing it to make another round of retrenchment.

In a statement, ABS-CBN said that “TV industry as a whole has been hurt by lower consumer spending which translated into lower advertising spends.”

With this, the media company said it “has made the difficult decision to retrench around 100 or about 3% of its workforce.”

In 2020, when the once TV giant failed to secure a Congressional franchise to operate in the free-to-air space, it laid off about 5,000 of its 11,000-strong workforce.

“We are committed to providing those affected with full benefits and support, and are deeply grateful for their many years of service to the company and to the public,” ABS-CBN said.

Despite “significant progress” seen in many of its businesses this year, ABS-CBN said that low TV advertising revenues still hurt its business.

“TV ratings continue to improve, Star Cinema produced two hits so far, with one of them being the highest grossing Filipino movie, and our music business has gotten a strong boost from the popularity of girl band BINI,” it said.

However, it said that “company is also being affected by the global decline in the pay TV business.”

ABS-CBN, as of the first half of 2024, trimmed its net loss by 5% to P2.127 billion from P2.229 billion in the same period last year.

The company’s consolidated revenues for the period declined 11% to P7.8 billion from P8.8 billion year-on-year as content production and distribution revenues slipped 3% to P4.9 billion while revenues for cable TV and broadband dipped 23% to P2.9 billion. — BM, GMA Integrated News