ABS-CBN shrinks debt, costs, as it fights its way back to profit

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.

A much smaller business

Without Sky Cable 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 Cable, 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 Cable 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.

‘Not yet where we need to be’

“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.”