Wednesday, April 18, 2018

TV5 shifts to sports, assures no cutback on employment

MANUEL V. Pangilinan-led TV5 Network Inc. guaranteed on Tuesday that there will be no retrenchment of its people as the company had repositioned itself as a predominantly sports and news channel.

In a sideline interview during ESPN5’s launching of “Live Boxing Month” for its sports events and shows lineup in May, TV5 President Vincent “Chot” Reyes told reporters they expect no more cuts in jobs within the organization, given the stability of their business at present.

“So, hopefully, this is it. There are no plans in the horizon; nothing in the near future because, like I said, I think, we have now a good complement of manpower to take us where we want,” he said.

Currently, TV5 employs about 700 people from almost double that number a couple of years ago.

“And it’s not like we were letting go of people. It’s just that because we’re no longer doing a lot of the entertainment stuff and all of it, so it’s a very natural process,” he added.

Since the third-leading television network in the country announced last year its transition from entertainment to sports channel, the top executive bared the encouraging feedback of the viewing public.

“As you know that response is really going to be measured by the revenue that’s generated. And, like I said, the kind of advertising money that we’re able to generate so far has been. We’ve been able to hit our targets,” he said.

Without divulging exact figures, Reyes said they have met their goals for airtime revenue and operating expenses in the first quarter of 2018.

He admitted, though, that some of their financial indicators “have been a little bit below” their targets, or just “a very small margin.”  Overall, the first three months remain to be “a very encouraging start,” according to the TV5 president, considering they are expecting to further cut their losses by half this year just to break even next year.

“The target by the end of 2019 [is that] we could hopefully achieve the breakeven already,” Reyes added. “We want to cut it by 50 percent from last year.”

The company’s net loss improved by 43 percent in 2017 compared to 2016.

While they are meeting their goals with current properties, he said that they are not complacent to rest on these achievements.

“We have to constantly come up with new properties to get a bigger slice of that pie the revenue. That’s why something like this is very important for us,” he noted, while referring to hard-hitting lineup of action-packed programming next month to the delight of Filipino fighting fans.

On May 13 ESPN5 will air live world-class pugilistic action from morning to late evening. Kicking off the festivities at 10 a.m. will be the live telecast of the world lightweight championship bout between Jorge Linares versus pound-for-pound great Vasyl Lomachenko.

Later at 3 p.m. is the “Survival Instinct,” a solid boxing card featuring the top fighters from Coach Joven Jimenez’s Survival Camp headlined by 2012 Rio Olympian Mark Anthony Barriga against Mexico’s Gabriel Mendoza in an International Boxing Federation minimumweight world title eliminator. The emerging winner of this fight will be the challenger to Japan’s Hiroto Kyoguchi, the reigning IBF minimumweight champion.

Also seeing action will be several top Pinoy fighters, namely, featherweight AJ “Bazooka” Banal, “Marvelous” Marvin Sonsona, and recent world-title challenger Genesis Servania. Boxing aficionados will be treated to some of sports history’s greatest knockouts wth ESPN5’s “Greatest Fights,” airing every Tuesday and Thursday.

Film and sports fans can see Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky 1 to 5 every Saturday. The exclusive matchup of IBF super-flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas, who will defend his belt against countryman and mandatory challenger Jonas Sultan in Las Vegas, will also be aired on ESPN5.

Launched in October last year, ESPN5 is the cobranded channel between TV5 and ESPN. This forms part of the local broadcasting firm’s thrust leaning toward a sports network. Other business properties of the company include News5, DIgital5 and Studio5.

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