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THE leading mobile phone service unit of Philippine Long Distance
Telephone Co. (PLDT) on Thursday warned that the prospects of its
mobile television service has become uncertain following the
government’s decision to extend no fiscal perks to the new
offering.
Napoleon Nazareno, Smart Communications Inc.
President, said the company will find ways to make myTV viable even
after the Board of Investments (BOI) thumbed down its request for
tax and other incentives.
A few years ago, the BOI also took back
incentives it had already approved for the 3G (third generation)
technology service offerings of Smart, resulting in a slowdown in
network rollout.
Nazareno said Smart’s investment in mobile TV
will depend on the market. “[It] depends on how the take up of the
demand will be,” he said.
MediaQuest Holdings, which initially invested
$30 million to rollout myTV, has yet to offer the service
commercially to its subscribers as the National Telecommunications
Commission (NTC) has so far issued no rules on the service.
MediaQuest subsidiary MediaScape in cooperation
with Smart has offered myTV, which is broadcast using the mobile TV
platform called Digital Video Broadcasting—Handheld or DVB-H.
MediaQuest is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the PLDT Beneficial Trust
Fund.
Contents that are currently available in myTV
include CNN, music channel MTV Philippines, Cartoon Network,
National Geographic Channel, Pinoy Box Office, the History Channel,
Solar Sports, Basketball TV, ETC, Jack TV and soon PBA games live.
The rules and guidelines on mobile TV have been delayed for more
than a year now as the NTC has yet to decide on whether to classify
it as value added service or broadcast service. Classifying the
service as value-added would allow telecom companies, as well as
broadcast networks to offer the service. A broadcast classification,
however, would shut the doors to telcos and limit this business to
TV networks.
-- Darwin G. Amojelar
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