GMA NETWORK Q4 NET INCOME DOWN BY 20%! NETS P2.82-B IN 2010!

GMA NETWORK's 4TH quarter net income dropped 20% year-on-year to P550 million from P690 million in 2009. Full year profits for 2010, however, was unchanged at P2.821 billion, driven by a 72% increase in  first quarter profits for 2010 mainly due from Political ads.

GMA Network said it missed its P3 billion profit target for 2010 as competition stiffened.However the broadcast giant  remained steadfast as it capped financial performance in 2010 with revenues of P14.299 billion, half a billion higher than a year ago.

It said it is keeping the same target this year, just like main rival ABS-CBN Corp, the parent company of this news site, announced earlier this week.

"Consolidated airtime revenues from all platforms climbed four percent to P13.193 billion backed mostly by political advertisements during the election period, which totaled P2.054 billion as against the P636 million booked in 2009. Revenues from international and subsidiaries operations, meanwhile, grew three percent to P1.107 billion.

"Flagship business unit Channel 7 chalked in the biggest revenues worth P12.213 billion, P334.06 million or three percent over the preceding year's P11.879 billion. GMA Radio inked its success story with revenues worth P535.60 million, or a sales hike of 43 percent as against 2009.

"GMA International brought in subscription and advertising revenues worth P925.37 million, eight percent up from 2009's P855.18 million on strong sales in the US, Canada, Middle East, North Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe.

"Total operating expenses (OPEX) were up by P619.45 million or eight percent year-on-year to P8.461 billion. Production costs went up by eight percent or P338.53 million on account of the non-recurring election coverage as well as additional in-house produced programs in the weekday late afternoon grid and the weekend flagship entertainment variety program Party Pilipinas. The weekday primetime programs also had higher programming costs relative to their counterparts from a year ago.

"General and administrative expenses (GAEX) were kept at a single-digit growth of eight percent to P3.733 billion. More than one third of the hike in GAEX was due to the spike in advertising and promotions to support the blitz in the regions and to hype the Company's 60th anniversary.

"The year finished with earnings before income, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) worth P4.711 billion, four percent behind 2009's P4.889 billion. But the drop in non-cash expenses drove the net income to settle at P2.821 billion.

"Everyone is of the opinion that Philippine economic growth will exceed 5% and as you know, our business is very dependent on the direction of the economy," Gozon added.

Its shares were unchanged today at P6.89 each. - ANC, Pep