WINDOWS
Gabriel L. Cardinoza

The ratings war between two television giants ABS-CBN and GMA has obviously escalated it has now spilled out to the countrysides. Where one goes, the other is there, trying to outdo each other in a minute-by-minute coverage of events to win the bigger audience share.

And so when GMA’s Unang Hirit featured the Bangus Festival live last Thursday morning, ABS-CBN’s Magandang Umaga Bayan was in Lingayen covering the Pistay Dayat.

It wasn’t the first time the two networks faced each other in the province. Last year, when GMA had a segment of its noontime show aired from the Dagupan City astrodome, ABS-CBN brought its entire Wowowee to the city. When GMA had a public service center opened at the astrodome through its various public affairs programs, ABS-CBN held a motorcade and a medical mission at the West Central Elementary School.

I hate to think that despite its virtual monopoly of the local television airwaves in Pangasinan (and nearby provinces), ABS-CBN still feels threatened by GMA, which only have an AM and FM stations here. There are reports though that this year, GMA will be building its regional television base in Pangasinan that will also be airing local news and public affairs programs similar to what ABS-CBN is doing now.

As we watch them fight from the sidelines, we can only smile because this early, it is obvious that the clear winner is the province. Because of the ratings game, the province’s Pistay Dayat, Bangus Festival and other festivals in the different towns, take center stage in national television. I remember, for instance, the Kambing Festival of Balungao, and the Talong Festival of Villasis having covered by ABS-CBN and aired on its national prime time television shows.

Yesterday, as I idled at home trying to figure out what to do that morning, I found government television NBN’s The Morning Show covering live this year’s town fiesta of Alcala, which features a three-kilometer barbecue, longer than the world-record breaking grill of Dagupan City. I’m not now sure if the two tv giants deliberately missed the colorful celebration and just gave its coverage to NBN, whose lady anchor Nina, by the way, is a former Miss Alcala.

The ratings war, of course, is about advertising revenues. The higher you are in the ratings means the bigger your audience share. And it is in having a bigger audience share that you attract more advertisers and even dictate your advertising rates.

Why the two giants decided to slug it out in the countrysides may be because of a Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (KBP) report that said more Filipinos now own a television set (95%) than radio (79%), although there is now a narrowing gap between radio listening and tv viewing, with radio posting 87 percent, against tv’s 94 percent. This trend is apparently shown by an estimated 16 million households nationwide in a survey was conducted by the Asia Research Organization Inc., a member of research group Gallup International.

Of the total respondents, the KBP said, 2,234,740 households are in Metro Manila and 2,212,393 (99%) has a TV set, while 2,026,239 owns a radio. Of the 13,394,605 household outside Metro Manila, 12,623,076 (94%) has a TV set and 10,312,506 (77%) with radio.

So there you are. Although it is not clear how much money these networks will be getting in Pangasinan, it’s pretty obvious that with its population and its four cities emerging as growth centers, Pangasinan is a gold mine.

Let’s just hope this ratings game will not get nasty, like politics, where some dirty politicians have to resort to squid tactics and vote-buying.