the Outsider - PSE Points to Ponder

  ABS-CBN and DITO once stood on opposite sides of the Philippine corporate fate. Now, both are being kept aloft by creditors, suppliers, and hope. There is a certain symmetry in corporate misfortune. In 2020, ABS-CBN, the Lopez family’s media empire, lost the congressional franchise that had long underpinned its free-to-air broadcasting business after a House committee voted 70-11 to deny its bid for renewal. Around the same era, DITO Telecommunity, backed by Dennis Uy’s Udenna group and China Telecom, was being cast as the disruptive third telco that would break the Globe-PLDT duopoly and bring competition to the Philippine connectivity market.  Six years later, the tables have not so much turned as collapsed inward. ABS-CBN is no longer the mighty broadcaster whose franchise became a national political drama. DITO is no longer merely the insurgent challenger promising cheaper data and faster speeds. Both have become variations of the same Philippine corporate specimen:...

  ABS-CBN Corp.’s long-running turnaround effort suffered another blow in the first quarter of 2026, as weaker advertising, a shrinking cable business, and compressed gross margins pushed the former broadcasting giant into negative equity. The Lopez-led media company reported a ₱813 million net loss for the three months ended March 31, 2026, wider than the ₱500 million loss a year earlier, as consolidated revenue fell 21% to ₱3.33 billion . Gross profit dropped to ₱527 million from ₱1.02 billion , driving the gross profit ratio down to about 15.8% from roughly 24.0% in Q1 2025. The weak quarter erased what remained of ABS-CBN’s equity cushion. Total equity swung to a ₱66 million deficit from ₱747 million positive equity at end-2025, while the company’s accumulated deficit widened to ₱6.65 billion from ₱5.97 billion . The results underscore how difficult it has been for the Lopezes to rebuild ABS-CBN’s earnings base after the loss of its broadcast franchise. Management has s...