Businessman Manny V. Pangilinan offered to pay in cash as a sweetener for his offer to merge GMA Network Inc. with his group’s owned TV5.
At a briefing yesterday, Pangilinan, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) chairman, said talks with GMA Network was “ongoing” but declined to give a time-table on when these talks would be concluded.
“Should we exceed, as we’re likely to exceed the 35 percent trigger point for the offer, then it will require us an offer on the same term to the minorities. So the answer is yes, we have to make a cash offer to the minorities,” he said.
Earlier reports said the three major shareholders of GMA Network, namely, the Gozons, Jimenezes and Duavits, have set a P60-billion asking price to meet Pangilinan’s proposal.
Pangilinan, however, remains mum on how much the offer is.
He remains positive that he will close a deal with GMA Network’s controlling stakeholders.
“Ultimately it depends on the three families to decide on whom they want to sell. They have the right to decide to whom to sell,” he said.
GMA Network recently reported a net income of P388 million in the first quarter, down from last year’s P534 million.
In a statement, the Gozon-led network said its consolidated revenues also fell to P3.002 billion from P3.138 billion.
Television and radio airtime revenues amounted to P2.707 billion, while revenues from subscriptions, licensing and subsidiaries came in at P295 million.
Core business unit GMA Channel 7 led the pack with more than 90 percent share of total airtime revenues while Channel 11, carrying the country’s number one news channel GMA News TV (News TV) increased its revenue record by seven percent under the QTV format from a year ago. GMA Radio, meanwhile, maintained the same top line level versus the first quarter last year.
GMA International contributed P231 million in the top line, slightly higher than the amount generated in the first quarter of last year, even with the appreciation of the Philippine peso against the US dollar, on the back of improved subscriber take up.
GMA International managed a double-digit growth in subscriptions for GMA’s flagship international channel GMA Pinoy TV (GPTV), which has almost 303,000 subscribers or over two million viewers worldwide as of May 10. More than 117,000 of these subscribers also subscribe to the only Filipino lifestyle channel GMA Life TV (GLTV), which has one million viewers worldwide.
Meanwhile, GMA News TV International is now seen in Australia, Canada, Guam, Japan, Madagascar and the UAE. It will soon be available in Europe, Malaysia and the US.
On television, GMA maintains its nationwide household audience share margins over ABS-CBN that commenced at the opening of 2011.
In April 2012, GMA led ABS-CBN by 6.1 household audience share points, equivalent to almost 1.1 million viewers in National Urban Television Audience Measurement (NUTAM), based on data provided by trusted ratings service provider Nielsen TV Audience Measurement.
GMA also led TV5 by a solid 20.4-point household audience share margin in NUTAM, which translates to almost 3.6 million viewers nationwide in favor of GMA.
The trending of audience shares for the three competing channels in the country’s key areas remains unaltered.
GMA still keeps commanding double-digit leads over ABS-CBN and TV5 in Total Urban Luzon and Mega Manila, respectively, comprising 77 percent and 59 percent of total urban television households nationwide.
GMA was ahead of ABS-CBN in Total Urban Luzon by 13.8 points, which translate to 1.9 million viewers over ABS-CBN; and by 24.7 points or 3.4 million viewers over TV5.
In its bailiwick Mega Manila, GMA was ahead of ABS-CBN by 16.2 points or 1.7 million viewers over ABS-CBN; and by 25.2 points or 2.7 million viewers over TV5.
Mario Fetalino