ABS-CBN pushes transition to digital TV broadcast

MANILA, Philippines—ABS-CBN Corp., the listed television broadcast arm of the Lopez group, said infrastructure investments and testing activities were ongoing ahead of the mandated transition into so-called digital terrestrial TV and cable TV, a statement issued Friday showed.

The plan, ABS-CBN said, would address poor reception for households without access to cable television. ABS-CBN DTV marketing head Miguel Mercado said viewers without cable TV still belonged to 80 percent of households. He said more than half, or 52 percent, received only two channels of “tolerable quality.”

“People do not get clear reception on TV because of the buildings and billboards that create interference in the signal. They don’t have a choice and they think it is because of their old TV sets,” he said in the statement.

Mercado noted that ABS-CBN has been investing heavily in infrastructure and test broadcast activities during the past six years to ensure a smooth transition to a digital format. Mercado, however, did not provide details on the investment requirements.

This shift to a digital format, described as the future of television, was originally discussed to totally replace by 2015 the existing analog broadcast transmission system in the Philippines that is plagued by issues on poor reception nationwide, the statement showed.

ABS-CBN, meanwhile, claimed a lead in TV ratings for April across urban and rural homes nationwide, citing research from Kantar Media. Main rival GMA Network Inc. has yet to release its ratings data although the two firms usually report conflicting and contradicting data given that GMA uses another research firm, AGB Nielsen.