GMA Network Inc. said Wednesday net income climbed 69 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, boosted by election-related spending.
The broadcasting company said net income reached P721.76 million in January to March, up from P426.3 million in the same period last year.
Consolidated revenues rose 14 percent in the three-month period to P3.7 billion from last year’s P3.3 billion.
GMA-7 said the main driver for the top-line growth was the presence of political advocacies and advertisements aggregating to more than P300 million in the three-month period.
It said discounting the impact of election-related placements, consolidated sales from recurring revenues still yielded a 4-percent growth from a year ago.
The network’s efficient cost management minimized total operating expenses to P12 billion, or 0.6 percent less than 2017’s spending.
“While the network experienced slight declines in revenues in 2018, I am confident that this year will bring better financial results because of election-related revenues as well as those from our recurring advertising sales,” said GMA chairman and chief executive Felipe Gozon.
“We target to increase our 2019 revenues by 12 percent,” he said.
Gozon said the company would launch MyGMA Go, its mobile digital terrestrial television service by the second half of the year.
The network’s affordable and compact end-user device can act as a digital TV receiver when connected to an Android smartphone.
Complementary to the device is a mobile application that can be downloaded from the Google Play Store where users can watch GMA’s exclusive channels that include an Asian telenovela channel, Korean music and variety channel, a concert channel and other free-to-air channels without a need for an active Internet connection.
The proprietary technologies that include hardware and software solutions for MyGMA Go have been the brainchild of the network’s technology arm and future-proofing agent GMA New Media Inc. since the mid-2000s. These have been patented with the Intellectual Property Organization.
Marketing and distribution plans are underway for the launch of MyGMA Go, as manufacturing of the end-user devices from China will be done by the late second quarter.