GMA Network promises better digital transition versus rival starting first half of 2017

Television broadcast giant GMA Network Inc. is firming up plans to roll out its digital TV service next year, starting with major urban areas across the country.

GMA chair and CEO Felipe Gozon told reporters in a recent interview the service could be commercially launched in the first half of 2017, starting in Mega Manila.

Gozon said the firm was also looking at Cebu and Davao, but that would also depend on “how successful it will be.”

Main rival ABS-CBN  Corp. was the first to launch its digital television (DTV) service in early 2015.

Gozon said GMA’s product would be different and more “interactive.” He noted that GMA DTV units could be priced higher than its rival, since it would have “more” features.

“You can play games, you can chat, you can choose programs, you can tape [TV shows] and watch it later,” Gozon noted.

ABS-CBN said in December it had sold over two million ABS-CBN TVplus units. Helping sales was a price cut in September, when the company decided to lower the retail price of an ABS-CBN TVplus  unit to P1,499 apiece, down about 25 percent.

Gozon said the broadcasting firm was still studying the impact of digital television on the company’s bottom line.

“No one knows yet,” he said. He said GMA would launch the venture with a telco, noting that the company was still in talks with potential partners.

GMA recently announced it was setting aside an initial  P416 million for three high-powered transmitter facilities for its digital terrestrial television (DTT) project.

GMA recently unveiled a prototype of their DTT product, which can function as both a receiver for digital television and a digital media set-top box.

The device can enable digital broadcast services on analog TV while transforming the unit into a smart TV capable of playing on-demand content and running different applications.

The Philippines in 2013 chose the Japanese standard, saying it was cheaper and allowed for a built-in warning system to inform people about natural calamities.

The NTC announced earlier the shutting off of analog TV, the current standard, should be done by 2019.

GMA is poised to report record earnings this year, mainly due to the presence of political advertising in the run up to the May 9, 2016 elections.

GMA said in a financial filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange that its nine-month net income rose 73 percent to P3.1 billion compared to the same period in 2015.

Revenues, most of which came from television and radio airtime sales, was up 24 percent year-on-year to P12.8 billion also from January to September this year.