ABS-CBN loses millions daily under shutdown

ABS-CBN is losing millions by the day that they are not broadcasting on air.

In a tweet by ABS-CBN News via Tarra Quismundo, ABS-CBN News head Ging Reyes said the network is losing 35 million per day since it stopped broadcasting on Tuesday, May 5.

Reyes said it during the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines’ online rally in against ABS-CBN shutdown.

On May 5, 2020, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) decided to issue a cease and desist order against the Kapamilya network after their franchise expired on May 4.

ABS-CBN loses P35 million daily with its broadcast services off the air, says Reyes at the @nujp online protest. | via @TarraQuismundo

— ABS-CBN News (@ABSCBNNews) May 8, 2020

In compliance, ABS-CBN network executives decided to shut down their operation on the same evening after TV Patrol‘s broadcast.

ABS-CBN’s franchise issue has been dragging on for years now.

It’s franchise renewal bills has been with the Congress since the 17th congress in 2016. 11 franchise renewal bills have been filed but the House leadership failed to act on it until March 2020, few days before their session break for the Lenten season.

House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Legislative franchises committee chief Rep. Franz Alvarez were so sure that ABS-CBN will continue their operations beyond its franchise expiry. They boasted about their letter signed by the two to the NTC asking the agency to grant ABS-CBN provisional authority.

Aside from the letter, they are also holding on to the fact that NTC commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba committed during the congressional hearing that they will grant ABS-CBN the provisional authority it needs to continue operating.

However, everyone was surprised that NTC made a sudden u-turn after it ordered the network to cease their broadcast.

Prior to NTC’s order, Solicitor General Jose Calida warned the NTC that they may be held liable for graft if they will issue PA to the network. A document of Calida’s warning to the NTC also emerged days after the shutdown instructing the NTC commissioner to give CDO to ABS-CBN instead of PA.

Currently, ABS-CBN’s flagship newscast TV Patrol is airing via their social media platforms and other subsidiary networks ANC and Teleradyo.