GMA Network will give utmost priority and attention on developing their digital initiatives in 2016, they hope that this move will give them the much needed push to gain momentum against their competitor who have already launched its network migration program.
The company’s President and Chief Executive, Felipe L. Gozon said in an interview that his firm is devising to improve their business, be competitive, and the best way is through digital transition.
“Today everyone is going digital, and given that fact, we will be focusing on our digital business and increase our ratings to be better than our competitor,” Gozon said.
Gozon futher said, that through the digital segment, this will boost the company’s capital requirements for next year to over one Billion pesos. He’s quick to add that he can’t disclose the details just yet and “Our capital expenditures will be higher that this year, that is, if you include the digital business,” he added. He compared by saying that spending for television will be less that one billion.
In a separate interview, according to Mr. Gozon, they will make use of a dongle instead of a set-top box which is being used by their competitor. “Our dongle is a small as a feature phone. We invented it and we’ll have it patented. We still don’t have a partner for this, but it will definitely be cheaper that the set-top box.”
By the way, A TV dongle is an electronic device that works as a mini streaming player. They are plug directly to your Television via USB (Universal Serial Bus) or HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) port in which it can receive different online or digital TV channels and with better viewing or screen resolution. It enables you to watch live TV streaming and video in full HD.
They are hopeful that by 2020 the Philippines will be set to fully adapt the Integrated Service Digital Broadcasting Terrestrial (ISDB-T) standard of Japan.
The migration plan will be a yearlong transition period when both the analog and the digital transmissions will be used at the same time. This period will start when the digital switch on starts, then after one year, the regulator will stop all the analog television services in the country, a period also known as the analog shut-off.
Looking back, as early as May 2015, GMA Network Inc has already topped an independent study measuring digital-television presence in Metro Manila, beating its rival, which had claimed to have led the digital shift in the broadcasting arena. The results of the study confirmed GMA’s readiness for the eventual shift to digital TV.
