The ad industry’s growth was fuelled as much by consumerism and its own creativity as the distribution outlets inside people’s homes—the TV set— that were enabled by broadcast giants ABS-CBN and GMA Network Inc.
“The Philippines is still very much a TV country, ” Gladys Basinillo, a media advertising veteran with over 25 years of expertise, said in an interview with the Inquirer. “It’s like they removed 50 percent of the advertisers’ reach. This is a big impact for us.”“Some of the viewers switched channels, but the majority simply turned off their TV sets after 8:00 pm, ” Basinillo said, citing data from third-party research firm Kantar Media.
“The move was so sudden and everybody, more so, the large stakeholder entities, thinkers and planners were caught flatfooted, ” Dan Villa, chair of advertising agency CreatiVilla, said in a statement.