After Failed Deal, MVP Group Still Keen to Strengthen Partnership With ABS-CBN

Instead of buying into ABS-CBN Corp, the MVP Group’s PLDT Inc. will instead continue to pursue a partnership with the broadcast giant for content development, Chairman Manny Pangilinan said Wednesday (October 19). 

“Before that particular transaction—which has already been terminated—we had already been in discussions with ABS-CBN about content being shown on TV5,” Pangilinan said on the sidelines of the launch of PLDT’s Digital Convention 2022. “That discussion continues to this day about content, but limited to entertainment alone. That discussion continues in various forms, whether in block time, licensing of existing [shows] and corporate actions. There are no investments involved in the discussion.

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“I think we have mutually terminated discussions with respect to investments, either investments in Sky and investments in ABS-CBN,” he added.

Last August, media giants ABS-CBN and TV5 announced that it had signed a groundbreaking agreement that will signal closer ties between both broadcast networks. The deal involved ABS-CBN shelling out about P2.16 billion to acquire a total of 6,459,393 primary common shares in TV5. That represents about 34.99 percent ownership in TV5, which is a part of the MVP Group. That would effectively reduce MediaQuest’s—the company within the MVP Group—ownership of TV5 to just 64.79 percent.

The deal also involves Cignal Cable Corp, which is a unit of the MVP Group’s MediaQuest Holdings Inc, acquiring a minority stake of 38.88 percent of Lopez-owned Sky Cable Corp. for P2.862 billion.

Bur after being publicly questioned by regulators and lawmakers, most vigorously by Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, both companies terminated the deal on September 1.

Currently, ABS-CBN buys block time slots from TV5, where the Kapamilya Channel airs some of its TV programs. 

“There are discussions focused on the program grid, weekdays from 5 a.m. all the way to closing time,” Pangilinan said. “They know that TV5 would have to produce its own content and we know that we have to work with other content providers, not only ABS-CBN, because we are also working with Viva, Unitel. We just have to make sure that we have our own content.”