The country’s two largest broadcast networks separately claimed higher television ratings nationwide in March.
GMA Network Inc. said it grabbed supremacy in National Urban Television Audience Measurement ratings of Nielsen TV Audience Measurement, with a 36.6-percent household audience share from March 1 to 31, beating ABS-CBN’s 36.1 percent and TV5’s 8.2 percent.
GMA said it also strengthened its leadership position in the viewer-rich areas of Urban Luzon and Mega Manila, which respectively accounted for 77 and 60 percent of all urban TV households in the country.
GMA said it overtook closest competitor ABS-CBN in Urban Luzon with 41.5 percent, 10.5 points ahead of the latter’s 31 percent. GMA was also ahead of TV5’s 7.3 percent by 34.2 points.
The company said that along with continued leadership in Urban Luzon, it kept its robust performance in Mega Manila with 43.2 percent, higher than ABS-CBN’s 28.2 percent by 15 points, and TV5’s 7.7 percent by 35.5 points.
Meanwhile, ABS-CBN Corp. said most TV households tuned in to its programs last month, after garnering an average audience share of 44 percent from combined urban and rural homes versus GMA 7’s 35 percent.
ABS-CBN, which uses Kantar Media for its TV audience measurement, said it led in the primetime block after hitting an average audience share of 49 percent, compared to 33 percent of GMA 7.
The primetime block is the most important part of the day when most Filipinos watch TV and advertisers put a larger chunk of their investment to reach more consumers effectively.
ABS-CBN said while TV ratings continued to be high, its programs were also being watched on the Internet, another proof that the company had gone beyond TV.
The company said through its pioneering video-on-demand and live streaming website iWanTV, it was able to respond to audiences’ preference to watch content online.
The website had a grand total of 34.42 million views across all programs of ABS-CBN led by “Dolce Amore” with 6.89 million page views, “FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano,” with 5.20 million page views, and the most-watched daytime program “Be My Lady” with 2.11 million views.
The online platform has its own app that can be used by subscribers of ABS-CBNMobile, ABS-CBN’s own mobile telephony company.