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By Darwin G. Amojelar, Reporter
THE Philippine cable television
industry sees a wave of mergers between telecom and broadcast
companies happening in the near term given the convergence of
service delivery technology platforms.
The industry made its forecast as
Globe Telecom Inc., the country’s second biggest mobile-phone
service provider, announced plans to join the mobile TV bandwagon.
“We foresee [the] merger of
service delivery among telecom and broadcast companies. We will
adopt [the new technology],” Allan Dungao, Philippine Cable TV
Association (PCTA) president, told reporters on the sidelines of the
group’s 15th convention.
The National Telecommunications
Commission (NTC) is already drafting guidelines on digital mobile TV
and digital terrestrial TV (DT-T) services, both new technologies
seen to revolutionize the industry.
Leading TV broadcast networks
ABS-CBN, GMA 7, ABC 5, NBN have separately filed applications before
the NTC to offer digital TV services.
“Initially we opposed it, right
now we will not oppose it anymore because we think it is not
feasible and it will not threaten our industry,” Dungao said.
The local cable TV industry has
been hounded by piracy, with an estimated P7 billion lost to illegal
connections. Illegal cable subscribers run to 2.5 million,
outnumbering the 1.5 million legal subscribers
From 1,000 registered cable
operators, their number has gone down to 500 operational providers.
While technology is catching up with cable TV operators, a slump in
sales is forcing telcos to look into other service offerings.
Globe said Wednesday it may
venture into mobile TV to reverse flagging subscriber growth.
Gerardo Ablaza, Globe chief
executive, said the company is setting its sights on opportunities
outside its traditional borders to create new areas of growth for
its portfolio.
“Where attractive acquisition
candidates and partnership opportunities exist, we will invest in
allied industries, technologies, and services complementary to our
core business, [based] on the competencies and lessons we have
learned in the telco market,” Ablaza said.
“We look [to] other
opportunities that could possibly include mobile TV and IPTV
[Internet protocol TV],” he said.
Globe’s announcement follows an
earlier disclosure by leading rival Philippine Long Distance
Telephone Co. to venture into mobile TV.
Mobile TV is a broadcast service
that delivers content to many viewers simultaneously through the
digital TV broadcast signal for mobile devices—similar to how a
conventional TV service delivers a TV signal to homes.
PLDT units Smart Communications
Inc. and MediaQuest plan to spend about $50 million in the next
three yeas on digital TV.
“Looking ahead into 2007, we
intend to retain our competitive rigor. We will remain focused and
continue to build on our successful strategies. Our priority in 2007
is to continue to extract growth from our core wireless business,
building on the gains that we have established in 2006,” Jaime
Augusto Zobel de Ayala 2nd, Globe chairman, said during the
company’s stockholders’ meeting.
Ablaza said Globe will spend
about $45 million this year to fund the expansion of its 3G
(third-generation) technology network.
Last year, Globe spent $60 to $65
million on what the industry touts is the next biggest thing in
mobile telephony.
Globe has 5,884 cell sites at
year-end, serves 98 percent of the population with a 94 percent
geographic reach.
Its network services 400,000 3G
handsets, of which 100,000 are active users.
Globe earlier said its profits
rose 14 percent to P11.8 billion last year from P10.3 billion in
2005.
The company’s consolidated
service revenues grew by 4 percent to P57 billion. The sustained
growth in service revenues together with effective cost management
measures drove double-digit growth in earnings, the company said.
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