ABS-CBN Corporation, the country’ leading media and entertainment company, reported a 5.8% increase in its net income for the first quarter of 2015, amounting to P569 million, compared to P538 million for the first quarter of 2014.

“I am very pleased with our performance for the first quarter,” said Aldrin Cerrado, the company’ chief financial officer. “Advertising revenue growth has been robust and should accelerate over the coming months.”

The company’ results also reflect its continued focus on increasing efficiencies in its operations. “We managed to reduce our production costs by 3.4% for the first three months of 2015 versus the comparable period last year, from P2.7 billion to P2.6 billion,” said Cerrado.

Total assets rose to P68.3 billion from P67.2 billion at the end of last year. Total equity stood at P26.5 billion as of end 1st quarter.Cerrado added that “ABS-CBN has made further significant inroads on the international front. ‘Be Careful With My Heart’ has been syndicated in numerous countries overseas and was recently voted Best Drama Series in Vietnam, with its stars Richard Yap and Jodi Sta. Maria winning Best Foreign Actor and Actress.

“I am also happy to report that our company has been recognized as one of the best in Asia by the international financial community. FinanceAsia, the leading publisher of financial news in the Asia Pacific region, recently included ABS-CBN Corporation in its ‘Asia’ Best Companies 2015’ list,” said Cerrado. In a survey of over 250 portfolio managers and buy-side analysts around the world, ABS-CBN was voted the third best mid-cap company in the Philippines, the only media company to have made it to the prestigious list.

Star Cinema released and distributed five movies during the quarter. “Praybeyt Benjamin 2,” which breached the P400 million mark in ticket sales, is now the highest grossing film released locally.

ABS-CBN’ global operations continue to expand its viewership reaching 2.9 million Filipinos worldwide.

Ron Valdueza, ABS-CBN Group CFO said, “We have finally begun to move the country into the digital TV era. ABS-CBN TV Plus, which we launched in mid-February, is now being enjoyed by more than 300,000 households in Mega Manila, North Luzon, and Cebu.

”ABS-CBN TVplus gives viewers clear digital signal on ABS-CBN and ABS-CBN Sports + Action, plus four exclusive channels namely, DZMM TeleRadyo, Knowledge Channel, children’ entertainment channel Yey, and 24-hour movie channel CineMo. Many households were able to watch the recent Pacquiao-Mayweather bout live through the pay-per-view option on their TVplus boxes.

“We should reach a million households by year-end and expand our coverage to the Visayas-Mindanao area,” said Valdueza.Various brokerage firms, including Deutsche Regis, Credit Lyonnais, Abacus, Maybank ATR Kim Eng and COL Financial have included ABS-CBN in their research coverage and are positive about the company’ future prospects. COL Financial, in its March 2015 report has a target share price for ABS-CBN of P75.