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MANILA, Philippines – ABS-CBN Corp. dismissed the purchase rumors as they whispered that billionaires are interested in taking possession of the embattled media giant after the Duterte administration ordered it to shut down its major broadcast operations the last week.
“ABS-CBN is not for sale,” Kane Errol Choa, head of communications for ABS-CBN, said Monday.
Choa released the statement in response to speculation that other parties were interested in picking up ABS-CBN, which is controlled by the private company Lopez Inc.
Top names include Grupo Ayala, owner of telecommunications giant Globe Telecom, and Udenna Corp., controlled by Dennis A. Uy, a Davao-based businessman and campaign donor to President Duterte.
Uy, whose group recently established a media and entertainment arm, denied any intention to buy ABS-CBN, saying “the broadcast business is not part of our corporate direction.”
A spokesman for Ayala said Monday that “there is no truth to that rumor.”
ABS-CBN is challenging the cease and desist order of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) before the Supreme Court.
ABS-CBN has continued its online presence as this is not covered by the NTC order. However, traditional media platforms like television and radio are crucial because they provide most of their income and almost all of their profits.
ABS-CBN said in its filing with the SC that it was losing up to P35 million per day, equivalent to approximately P1 billion per month, due to the shutdown. Without a profit, the company will eventually go bankrupt, threatening its 11,000 employees, analysts warned.
In issuing its cease and desist order on May 5, the NTC argued that ABS-CBN can no longer continue to broadcast using its assigned radio frequencies since its franchise in Congress expired the previous day.
The NTC also told ABS-CBN to explain within 10 days why its frequencies should not be withdrawn by the government.
Those frequencies are what other players reportedly want to win.
Pierre Galla, co-founder of the advocacy group Democracy.Net.PH, said the use of those frequencies would be up to the NTC in case the government succeeds in remembering the spectrum.
He said typical options include a so-called beauty pageant, where the NTC decides which company is most capable of using the assets, or a spectrum auction, where the highest bidder wins the frequencies.
Galla said another option is to stop or delay the withdrawal of frequencies through a legal challenge, keeping them tied up in court.
While frequencies and a congressional franchise are important requirements of the broadcast business, one of ABS-CBN’s most important assets is its content, which includes an extensive library of TV shows and movies.
Just before the closing, the company’s CEO Carlo Katigbak made sure to remind loyal viewers of this fact when he mentioned The Probinsyano, one of its most successful shows.
“Frequencies are valuable if the network is going to operate, but content is king in this business,” said Dennis Anthony Uy, a Pampanga businessman and owner of broadband company Converge ICT Solutions Inc., told the Investigator that he also has no plans to venture. in the transmission business.
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