GMA-7 BOOKED P7B AD COMMITMENTS FOR 2011! EX[PECTS REVENUES TO EXCEED P13B!

GMA Network Inc. has booked over P7 billion worth of advertisement contracts this year and expects revenues to breach the P13-billion mark registered last year.

“By December of last year, we have already booked over P7 billion worth of ads for this year from 10 big advertisers. This is already more than half of our target revenues for 2011,” GMA Network chairman and chief executive Felipe Gozon told reporters at the sidelines of GMA News TV channel launch late Monday.

“For the first time, we started negotiating [for the following year’s ads] as early as November,” he said.

Ten advertisers with big volume accounts signed up with GMA in December last year, he said. He added that one major advertiser that boycotted the network went back and signed a bigger contract. He did not name the account.

Gozon said the network would again increase its advertising rates in March to make them at par with rival ABS-CBN Corp.

“I don’t want to sell any more ads below Channel 2’s price,” he said. “We are very optimistic with Channel 7. We have booked very good revenue figures for January and for the first few days of February,” he said.

Gozon said that Channel 7 had maintained a small lead in nationwide ratings and a comfortable lead in Mega Manila and Luzon.

GMA Network posted over P2.8 billion in net income last year, up 2 percent year-on-year but short of the company’s initial target of P3 billion. Revenues reached P13 billion in 2010.