The wealth of two of the richest people in the Philippines almost doubled from a year ago as shares of their media giant, GMA Network, rose roughly 90% since the shutdown of its main rival 12 months ago.
GMA chairman and CEO Felipe Gozon‘s net worth is estimated at $280 million, while the fortune of former GMA president and Gozon’s brother-in-law, Menardo Jimenez, is about $200 million.
On May 17, GMA reported that first-quarter revenue rose 55% to 5.5 billion pesos (about $115 million) from a year earlier, while net income after tax jumped 246% to 2 billion pesos.
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GMA became the dominant TV network in the Philippines after the government failed to renew the 25-year free-to-air broadcast license of ABS-CBN, the country’s other top TV network. ABS-CBN stopped broadcasting on May 5, the day after its license expired.
“We lost one network, so eventually GMA was able to get the audience of the previous one,” says Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist at BDO Unibank in Manila. “They eventually got the lion’s share.”
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The 71-year-old GMA’s “consolidation” of the former ABS-CBN audience piggybacks on a Philippine “cult of consumption” that plays up the network’s historic strength in entertainment broadcasts, says James Gomez, regional director at Bangkok-based think tank Asia Centre. “They will be able to draw eyeballs,” he says.
GMA has no obvious political leanings, Gomez adds. ABS-CBN, meanwhile, had sparred with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. In 2019, Duterte vowed to force ABS-CBN off the air after the network failed to air one of his 2016 campaign ads. A congressional committee in March last year began reviewing ABS-CBN’s license renewal application but failed to reach a decision before it expired two months later. In July last year, the committee rejected ABS-CBN’s application, saying it had violated the terms of the license.
Coverage of the 2022 Philippine presidential election will grow the audience, Ravelas says. Duterte steps down next year as the Philippine constitution allows for a single six-year stint. Elections are scheduled to be held in May 2022.