THE iconic Millennium Tower of broadcast network ABS-CBN along Mother Ignacia Street, Quezon City. On Wednesday, 12 August 2026, three branches of the Lopez family said they will be investing P2 billion of their own money to revive operations of the debt-beleaguered broadcast network.
PHOTOGRAPH courtesy of Philippine News Agency
ABS-CBN Corp. is betting that a leaner operation, less debt, and an unlikely alliance with former rivals can finally bring it back to profit, six years after losing its broadcast franchise gutted its once-dominant television business.
At the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting on Wednesday, President and CEO Carlo Katigbak made the case that ABS-CBN’s long and painful restructuring is beginning to work — even if the company remains billions of pesos in the red.
“Our revenues are recovering. Our cost base is significantly lower. Our debt is reduced. And our losses continue to narrow,” Katigbak told shareholders.
ABS-CBN has become a much smaller business.
Excluding Sky, general expenses and manpower costs have been slashed by 54 percent to P6.9 billion in 2025 from P15 billion in 2019. Outstanding debt has similarly been cut by 58 percent to just under P8.5 billion from P20.5 billion, helped by asset sales.
Revenue, however, has been harder to rebuild.
Excluding Sky, ABS-CBN generated P12.6 billion in revenue last year, its highest since losing its franchise but still far below the P33.2 billion it booked in 2019. Revenue had collapsed to just P9.3 billion in 2021.
Recurring net loss excluding Sky narrowed to P2.5 billion in 2025 from P8.3 billion in 2020, with Katigbak saying such losses have declined every year since then. On a consolidated basis, ABS-CBN still lost P4.7 billion last year, although that was 23% narrower than the P6.1-billion loss in 2024.
“We recognize that we are not yet where we need to be,” Katigbak said, while expressing confidence that the momentum would eventually “carry us through to profitability.”
“We no longer depend on owning platforms to reach audiences,” Katigbak said, pointing to partnerships that “would have once seemed impossible.” That includes former archrival GMA Network.
Chief operating officer Cory Vidanes told shareholders that a new season of “Gandang Gabi Vice” will launch next month on GMA, iWant and Kapamilya Channel, while “Pinoy Big Brother Collab 3.0” will roll out in October in partnership with GMA.
Even PBB’s famous house is getting the cost-cutting treatment: Vidanes said the program is moving to a new home that will be “more cost-efficient for us.”
ABS-CBN is leaving the door open to more alliances. Asked about possible joint ventures with GMA or MediaQuest, chief partnerships officer Roberto Barreiro stopped short of announcing any deal but said ABS-CBN was open to working with other media companies “under terms that are beneficial to our company.”
After the turnover of property sold to Ayala Land by mid-2027, all ABS-CBN operating units in Quezon City will be housed in the Eugenio Lopez Communications Center and Gina Lopez Building, according to real estate and development group head Grant Orbeta.
The remaining question is whether cost cuts and partnerships can be matched by enough revenue growth.
Katigbak pointed to BINI’s 2 billion music streams, ABS-CBN productions on Netflix and Amazon Prime, more than 55 million YouTube subscribers and P900 million in combined box-office receipts from Star Cinema’s three biggest Filipino films of 2025 as evidence that its content can make money well beyond traditional television.
“This is a new ABS-CBN that we are building,” Katigbak said, “adapting to a different time and circumstance.”
