ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center, South Triangle, Quezon City. Gigie Cruz, ABS-CBN News
MANILA — ABS-CBN President and CEO Carlo Katigbak said on Thursday the company would continue to look for partners on free TV, pay TV, and online streaming to create and distribute the best content.
“We hope to increase our viewership to a far larger base than what we had before," Katigbak said during the virtual annual stockholders’ meeting.
He added that ABS-CBN would focus on what it does best, which is to tell stories that inspire, inform and ignite change.
“Broadcasting never defined ABS-CBN. What we did best was to tell stories,” Katigbak said.
"The heart and soul of ABS-CBN is in storytelling," he added.
Katigbak mentioned the success of shows and films from the last year including the hugely popular "Ang Probinsyano," which recorded a 38 percent audience share, "Partners in Crime," which hit P177 million in box office receipts, and "An Inconvenient Love" which ranked number 9 on Netflix globally for non-English movies.
He, however, admitted that there were still challenges. He said, “It is still an uphill climb to profitability, but the light at the end of the tunnel has become sharper and brighter.”
ABS-CBN has shed unneeded assets to raise cash and improve production quality and quantity, Katigbak said.
ABS-CBN generated P3 billion from the sale of various properties which helped offset financing costs and decrease the company’s net loss to P2.63 billion in 2022 from P5.67 billion in 2021.
Meanwhile, revenues grew to P19.2 billion in 2022 from P17.8 billion the previous year.
On reports that ABS-CBN compound in Quezon City has been sold, Katigbak clarified there is no deal yet on the redevelopment of the property.
ABS-CBN had to drastically cut costs and sell assets following the non-renewal of its franchise by Congress in 2020.
The non-renewal led to the retrenchment of employees and the closure of several business units. The latest to cease operations is TeleRadyo which debuted in 2007. It will officially close at the end of June 2023.
Shareholders asked when ABS-CBN would be able to accommodate live audiences for shows like ASAP and Magandang Buhay, a reflection of how much audiences miss live Kapamilya shows.
Katigbak said they can’t accommodate live audiences yet due to financial constraints, but they would let the public know as soon as it becomes possible.
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