GMA chairman and chief executive officer Felipe Gozon said they will spend about P500 million for the construction of a building this month to house a new studio that will have a capacity of 1,000 seats.

The building will also include three to four storeys of offices. Gozon said the P500 million also covers the acquisition of expensive equipment for the new studio.

GMA is also spending some P290 million this year for the expansion and upgrading of its provincial stations as it gains a bigger share of the audience in key cities such as Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Dagupan and Naga.

He noted that both their news and entertainment programs are already number one in Cebu, Davao and Iloilo after they beefed up these regional relay stations into originating stations which produce some local shows on their own.

Gozon said they will spend about P50 million each to build up the Naga and Dagupan stations from the group up into originating stations. The budget covers land acquisition, construction and equipment costs.

He said all these will be funded by the huge cashflow from their operations.

"We are making much more money than we can spend. We don’t know where to invest all of it," Gozon said.

According to Gozon, revenue growth in this year and next will come mainly from a hike in advertising rates as well as from fresh revenue sources such as its international cable television operations and the commercial operation of new channel QTV.

After starting its international operations last year, Gozon said they now have 80,000 subscribers in the United States and they expect this figure to more than double by the end of the year.

He added that they are also expanding to other countries where there are a lot of Filipinos particularly the Middle East, Europe, Hong Kong and Australia within the year.

Gozon said international operations are expected to contribute substantially to the company’s revenues and bottomline. He explained that he substantial means at least P100 million.

The firm also expects additional revenues from interest earnings from the proceeds of GMA’s planned initial public offering of about P9 billion worth of shares in July.