BROADCAST giants ABS-CBN Corp. and GMA Network, Inc. are not threatened by TV5’s new prime-time game show, despite its strong showing in ratings.
But Charo Santos-Concio, ABS-CBN president and chief operating officer, told reporters last week it was “everybody’s ballgame.”
“Basically, it is the same format, with almost the same songs only on a different network, and a different time-slot. But it’s everybody’s ballgame as long as we are driven to give the best programs to our viewers,” she said.
Data from Kantar Media provided by ABS-CBN showed that ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol newscast got a national television rating of 27% against Willing Willie’s 13.6% on its pilot show last Oct. 23, although the latter overlapped with other ABS-CBN programs.
“We are actually driven more to do our best. At the end of the day, it is still the viewers who will choose what to watch,” Ms. Concio said.
Willing Willie, hosted by Willie Revillame, debuted on TV5 a day after a Quezon City court junked the petition of ABS-CBN, Mr. Revillame’s former network, for lack of legal basis. With the decision, ABS-CBN found itself unable to stop its former talent from appearing on a new show in another network.
Mr. Revillame returned to TV more than five months after he left his noontime show Wowowee on ABS-CBN last May 25.
A GMA Network spokesman also said the network was not threatened by TV5 show, pointing out that GMA Network pulled further away from its closest rival in Luzon and Mega Manila TV ratings last month.
Citing AGB Nielsen Media Research (Philippines), GMA Network said it got a 37.4% audience share in Mega Manila, up by 8.7 points over ABS-CBN’s 28.7%. “The station’s banner newscast 24 Oras led all programs and took the top spot in October,” it said.
Ray C. Espinosa, TV5 president and chief executive, told reporters in a briefing last week Willing Willie had the “momentum.” Data from AGB Nielsen showed that Willing Willie’s pilot episode topped the ratings, beating shows aired in the same timeslot by ABS-CBN and GMA Network.
Willing Willie’s audience share in Mega Manila during the pilot episode was 33.8%, three percentage points higher than the ratings posted by the movie Ang Darling Kong Aswang aired by ABS-CBN. Wish Ko Lang!, the public service program aired by GMA Network during the same timeslot, received a rating of 28.8%, he said.
TV5 is controlled by Mediaquest Holdings, Inc. Mediaquest Holdings, a unit of the PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund, has a minority stake in BusinessWorld.
