The network saw a steep decline of 94% compared to the same period last year.
On Friday, August 14, media giant GMA Network, Inc., which operates the Philippines’ largest TV and radio network, disclosed its financial performance for the first half of 2026.
According to the company, which tallied in its subsidiaries in the report, its consolidated revenues reached P6.608 billion in the first six months of 2026, which is PHP3.488 lower than its revenue during the first six months of the preceeding year.
Its earnings before interests, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), meanwhile, was at PHP1.095 billion, a 71% decline compared to PHP3.796 billion in H1 2025.
However, consolidated net income after tax plunged to just PHP110 million in the months of January to June 2026, which the network said is a 94% decline (amounting to PHP1.857 billion) from the PHP1.967 billion it recorded during the same period last year.
The Kapuso network divulged that while consolidated advertising revenues, which totalled PHP5.892 billion, remained its biggest source of revenues (with an 89% share in the total revenue pie), it faced challenges during this period.
“Airtime sales from free-to-air TV and Radio broadcast continued to take up the lion’s share in the advertising revenue segment, which was likewise the hardest hit in terms of year-on-year revenue performance,” it shared.
GMA cited the absence of election-related spending, which boosted its performance in H1 2025 with more than PHP2.0 billion in cash inflow, as one of the reasons for the slump.
Compared to the first half of 2025, advertising revenues dropped by PHP3.416 billion or 37%.
Meanwhile, excluding election-related revenues, the company also said that its core business also experienced headwinds, with regular revenues declining by 17%, from the same period last year.
“This contraction reflects the combined effects of prevailing geopolitical uncertainties and challenging macroeconomic conditions, which tempered advertising demand and overall business activity during the period,” GMA explained.
It elaborated, “Beyond the ongoing structural shift in consumer media consumption from traditional free-to-air channels to internet protocol based platforms, overall advertiser spending was also adversely affected by a challenging macroeconomic environment during the period.”
One of the main reasons was the significant economic pressure brought about by the ongoing Middle East conflict and disruptions in the Straits of Hormuz, which have intensified the energy crisis and driven up fuel costs.
“These challenges created widespread impacts across manufacturing, consumer spending, and advertising investments. Key issues included rising inflation and cost of essential goods and services weakening consumer purchasing power and reduced spending on non-essential products.”
GMA also noted that shortages of petroleum-based materials have affected the production of cleaning products, packaging
materials, plastics, fertilizers, and other goods, prompted some clients in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry to pause advertising placements for selected product lines.
Additionally, government advertising spending also declined as agencies adopt a more cautious approach to budget utilization and expenditure prioritization.
“Overall, the combination of geopolitical tensions, inflation, supply shortages, rising labor and operating costs due to periodic wage increases, aggravated by domestic political instability, has put pressure on businesses and advertisers, leading to reduced marketing expenditures and slower economic activity,” the network further stated.
On a per channel level, GMA 7 continued to lead the pack in terms of total revenues, albeit also registering the biggest shortfall this period due to the aforementioned reasons, despite being the leading network based on Nielsen
TV Audience Measurement data for the first half of 2026,
Meanwhile, GTV, the network’s secondary free-to-air channel remained a strong source of airtime revenue for the network, but also exhibiting a top-line reduction from a year ago.
The same trend was also seen in Radio, which include Barangay LS and DZBB Super Radyo, in terms of revenues generated this first half of 2026, given the absence of election-related placements. However, discounting the incremental boost in 2025, Radio’s revenues remained flat in between periods.
Meanwhile, consumer sales and production services also contributed combined revenues of PHP717 million, by PHP72 million lower against prior year’s top-line performance.
GMA’s International channels,
composed of GMA Pinoy TV (GPTV), Life TV (GLTV) and News TV (GNTV), saw a top line growth of 6% year-on-year, partly due to the foreign exchange difference which mitigated the subscriber churn.
Meanwhile, consolidated Production Services and other revenues for the six-month period ended June this year settled behind same period last year by 18% coming from the net impact of reduced inflows from collaborations with other production companies, portion buys/sponsored production content, etc., which was cushioned by the growth in over-the-top (OTT) licensing fees.
Finally, on the sale of merchandise items, mainly the digital TV set-top box GMA Affordabox, it saw a double-digit reduction due to less quantities sold in between periods coupled with the price reduction for GMA Affordabox from PHP799 to PHP699 from May 15, 2025.
Thus, parallel to the reduction in the top line, the management pursued cost-containment measures, which it told helped reduce direct costs and operating expenses, with the total expenses amounting to P6.7 billion from January to June 2026, or 11% lower compared to the same period in 2025.
