ABS-CBN Corp. said Thursday net income in the first quarter nearly doubled to P808 million from P410 million year-on-year, mostly because of higher political advertisements.
Consolidated revenues reached P10.3 billion from last year’s P9 billion. Advertising sales accounted for P5.4 billion of the revenues, up 24.4 percent from last year’s P4.3 billion, on political placements and growth in regular advertising.
Excluding political placements, regular advertising increased 14.6 percent on year.
Consumer sales rose 6.2 percent to P4.9 billion, mainly resulting from higher TVPlus Boxes sold and theatrical receipts from ABS-CBN Films.
ABS-CBN TVPlus contributed a significant increase in revenues during the first quarter with 638,000 boxes sold, up 9 percent on year.
Film and music’s revenues increased 21 percent in the first quarter of the year.
Sky’s revenue rose 4 percent year-on-year.
The increase in Sky’s performance was triggered by the rise in broadband and DTH subscribers by 26,000 and 531,000, respectively.
Kidzania generated P131 million in revenues with a total of 113,000 visitors, while ABS-CBN Studio Experiences generated P6 million in revenues with a total of 18,000 visitors in the first quarter of 2019.
ABS-CBN generated total revenues of P401 million from digital platforms, higher by 64 percent from a year ago.
Revenue from the international business decreased 3.2 percent on the year due.