AUDIENCE SHARE. Meanwhile, GMA Network further claims that it has "sustained its lead" in viewer-rich Mega Manila and Total Urban Luzon based on data from AGB Nielsen Philippines in September.

GMA Network is said to have posted an average audience share of 40.5%, 8.6 percentage points higher than competition's 31.9%. Mega Manila TV households account for 49.3% of the National Urban Television Audience Measurement (NUTAM).

Among the top 30 programs in Mega Manila during the third quarter, 16 shows were from the Kapuso Network. Darna took the number one spot in the roster with its average household rating of 36.5%.

In Total Urban Luzon, which accounts for 77% of NUTAM TV households, GMA-7 managed an average audience share of 39% in September. The report from the Network's Corporate Communication department highlighted that their audience share for that month is higher by 4 percentage points compared to ABS-CBN's 35%.

AD MINUTES. In the document that GMA-7 submitted to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the Network discloses that advertising minutes saw a decrease by 6.6% in Q3 versus the same period in 2008. It also indicated that total industry advertising minutes among free-to-air TV channels went down by 5.8%.

It should be noted that the total advertising minutes referred to in the report represents the combined loading of Nielsen monitored FTA channels (ABS-CBN, GMA, QTV, TV5, C/S 9, SBN ETC, RJTV 2nd Ave, Studio 23, IBC and NBN).

This report prepared by Ari P. Chio, Vice President of GMA-7's Investor Relations, also claimed that the Network had a 2.1% drop in competitive ad loading, which is the total airtime (in minutes) taken up by TV commercials, for the first nine months of the year. In comparison, ABS-CBN had a 14.8% decrease during the same period, claims the GMA-7 report.