TV ratings remain two-cornered fight between ABS, GMA

MANILA, Philippines – Broadcast firms ABS-CBN Corp. and GMA Network Inc. both claimed they topped television ratings in the country in January.

Citing data from Kantar Media, ABS-CBN said in a statement it got an average audience share of 43 percent from both urban and rural homes, higher than GMA’s 36 percent last month.

Kantar Media’s data are gathered from a nationwide panel size of 2,609 urban and rural homes.

ABS-CBN said it remained the preferred TV network for the primetime block with its average audience share of 48 percent compared to GMA’s 33 percent.

The primetime block, considered the most important part of the day, is when most viewers watch TV and advertisers put the bulk of their investments to reach consumers.

The firm’s “It’s Showtime” which had an audience share of 16.1 percent for January, was also able to regain the lead in the weekday noontime slot as the rating of GMA’s Eat Bulaga dropped to 15.2 percent.

Meanwhile, GMA said in a statement it continued to be the leader in nationwide TV ratings in January.

Based on data from Nielsen TV Audience Measurement, GMA said it had a 37.5 percent share in NUTAM (National Urban Television Audience Measurement) in January, higher than ABS-CBN’s 35.3 percent and TV5’s 8.2 percent.

Nielsen TV Audience Measurement used a nationwide urban sample size of 2,000 homes, while it had a sample size of 1,200 homes in Mega Manila this year.

GMA said it was the most watched channel across all time blocks in Urban Luzon and Mega Manila, the areas representing 77 percent and 60 percent, respectively, of all urban TV households in the country.