ABS-CBN Corp. said two Hollywood-style studios in Bulacan province are expected to be operational in May this year.
“The two sound stages will be operational by May. If you go to Bulacan, you will see the big structures already and it will be operational by May,” ABS-CBN chief financial officer Aldrin Cerrado said.
ABS-CBN earlier said it invested at least P600 million for the construction of two sound stages in a 15-hectare lot in San Jose del Monte City.
The company plans to build 10 sound stages in the site.
The network aims to save about 65 percent to 75 percent in shooting location costs with the construction of the new sound stages.
ABS-CBN Corp. reported a net income of P3.16 billion in 2017, down 10.3 percent from P3.53 billion in 2016 in the absence of election-related advertisements.
“Overall, we are pleased with our performance for 2017 and we are particularly happy to have exceeded our guidance for net income,” Cerrado said.
“Top-line revenue growth, boosted by a healthy increase in consumer sales, was about 9 percent,” he said.
The company generated consolidated revenues of P40.7 billion from advertising and consumer sales last year, representing a 2.3 percent year-on-year decline from 2016.
Advertising revenues decreased 10.8 percent year-on-year because of high election-related advertising placements in the first half of 2016.
Excluding election related placements, advertising revenues in 2017 went down by only 0.3 percent year-on-year, it said.
Consumer sales increased P1.62 billion mainly resulting from the sale of ABS-CBN TVPlus and higher revenues from Sky Cable’s broadband and direct-to-home business.
ABS-CBN TVPlus contributed a significant increase in revenues for the entire year with a total of 2 million boxes sold, up 53.5 percent or 702,000 additional boxes sold from 2016.
Sky Cable’s revenues rose P4.1 percent year-on-year on higher broadband and direct-to-home subscriber count by 15,000 and 399,000, respectively.
Total subscriber count of Sky increased 458,000 or 45.3 percent to 1.5 million subscribers as of end-2017.
Kidzania generated P528 million in revenues with a total of 338,000 visitors in 2017 .
O-shopping continuously offered new products and promos to assure quality home TV shopping and online experience. It generated P840 million in revenues, or 2.1 percent higher than in 2016.
Direct costs and expenses reached P36.49 billion in 2017. Cash capital expenditures and program rights acquisitions amounted to P7.9 billion. (D.G. Amojelar, TMS)