More than six years after losing its franchise and enduring a television shutdown that crippled its finances, ABS-CBN is in its strongest position in years.
ABS-CBN has already proved it can survive without a franchise and that its stories can still command an audience.
Those steps toward recovery are now attracting fresh capital from inside and outside the family, with investors preparing to inject P6 billion in fresh equity.
The significance of that progress was not lost on ABS-CBN president and CEO Carlo Katigbak as he addressed shareholders at their annual meeting on Wednesday.
After years spent enduring one crisis after another, Katigbak is now shifting from keeping ABS-CBN alive to rebuilding it for the long haul.
“This is a new ABS-CBN that we are building, faithful to our mission of public service, but adapting to a different time and circumstance,” Katigbak said in his message to shareholders.
“Our next chapter will be about proving that ABS-CBN can rebuild a company strong enough to serve the Filipino for generations to come,” he added.
Surviving the impossible
That recovery was far from certain when ABS-CBN went off the air in May 2020.
Revenue excluding SkyCable collapsed to P9.3 billion in 2021 from P33.2 billion in 2019, while the company entered the crisis carrying P20.5 billion in debt.
Survival required painful decisions. ABS-CBN laid off thousands of employees, sold assets and dramatically cut costs.
“These are not normal times for your company. We have been through one crisis after another, most of them existential in nature. Yet to me, this period in our history is a defining moment, not just for those of us who work here, but also for you, our co-shareholders,” Katigbak said.
Those moves helped bring debt down 58 percent to just under P8.5 billion by 2025, while recurring net loss narrowed to P2.5 billion from P8.3 billion in 2020.
Proving that good storytelling still matters
ABS-CBN lost its biggest platform with the franchise, but its stories did not lose their audience.
The company went where viewers went, bringing its content to digital platforms and striking partnerships with other networks, including former rivals such as GMA Network and TV5.
BINI is perhaps the clearest proof of how far that pivot can go. The group has crossed 2 billion streams and performed at Coachella.
Katigbak pointed to other signs that the stories are still connecting:
Can profit and purpose coexist?
Katigbak also confronted a question that matters to shareholders: can ABS-CBN preserve its public-service mission while rebuilding a business that delivers returns?
“ABS-CBN is a business, of that there is no doubt. We need profits to sustain the work that we do. We owe it to our shareholders to deliver a fair return on your capital. We owe it to our banks, our employees, our partners to make good on all our obligations to them,” he said.
For ABS-CBN, that mission ultimately needs a business that can pay its way and reward shareholders.
“We recognize that we are not yet where we need to be. And while this has no doubt been a difficult chapter in ABS-CBN’s history, we continue to believe with complete confidence that the momentum you are seeing will carry us through to profitability,” Katigbak said.
“It is a chance to decide whether ‘In the Service of the Filipino’ was just a compelling slogan that served us well in good times, or if it is the genuine reason for our existence, proven because we embraced it in impossible times,” he said.
Why ABS-CBN continues to fight
Katigbak’s message looked at what ABS-CBN has proved through six difficult years and what it still needs to prove.
Beyond the turnaround is a more fundamental question. Why was ABS-CBN worth saving in the first place?
The answer lies with its thousands of employees and an unshakable belief that stories worth telling can ultimately sustain the business.
“That is why, despite the multiple setbacks we have faced, we continue to fight for the survival and the recovery of your company,” Katigbak said.
“We have faith that the collective work of four thousand dedicated Kapamilyas—employees, artists, creatives, journalists—will bear fruit at the right time. We hold on to the conviction that financial returns will follow for as long as we continue to tell stories that matter to the Filipino,” he said.
—Edited by Miguel R. Camus
