WHAT WENT BEFORE

Eugenio Lopez Sr. started ABS-CBN Corp. as a radio broadcasting company in the 1950s. In the 1970s, the company became a TV network with color broadcast and live satellite transmission from abroad.

In 1972, ABS-CBN and its affiliate stations (a total of seven television stations) were seized by the government after the country was placed under martial law.

ABS-CBN was one of the four TV networks along with close to 400 English and Filipino dailies, weekly magazines, community newspapers, radio stations and other media outlets that were closed when dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law.

Most of the media outfits were eventually “bought” or taken over by Marcos cronies and relatives.

Lopezes regain control

ABS-CBN resumed commercial operations in September 1986, several months after the Edsa People Power Revolution when then President Corazon Aquino returned, through an executive order, the network and other companies to the Lopezes.

A year after, it was relaunched as “The Star Network” and claimed to be No. 1 among all TV stations for six months.

In July 1992, ABS-CBN went public and began producing programs for its regional stations. It launched Star Cinema in 1993, The Filipino Channel in 1994 and ABS-CBN News Channel in 1996.

In 2010, ABS-CBN dropped “broadcasting” from its corporate name to become ABS-CBN Corp. in response to changes in the media landscape, its corporate website said.

Today, the “Kapamilya Network” is the flagship TV station of ABS-CBN Corp., the biggest media conglomerate in the Philippines.

Highly rated by Filipino TV fans is its prime-time show FPJ’s “Ang Probinsiyano,’’ which has an over 30-percent audience share according to the latest Kantar Media Ratings.

Profits, employees

The TV network had a net income of P1.9 billion in 2018, while its assets stood at P84.6 billion, according to its 2018 annual report.

From January to September this year, ABS-CBN had a net income of P2.27 billion, its latest quarterly report said.

It had 6,730 regular employees, 900 “nonregular” employees, 3,325 talents and project-based workers in 2018, according to the annual report. —Inquirer Research

Sources: abs-cbn.com, edge.pse.com.ph