THE Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) group’s plan to launch a direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television service is seen to finally take off this year, as it earmarks P700 million as initial investment.

“[The plan] is pushing through, definitely. It will be in the middle of this year. We will launch DTH in the third quarter. Our initial investment will amount to P700 million,” said Orlando B. Vea, Smart Communications Inc. chief wireless advisor, in an interview yesterday.

Vea also said the group’s venture into the business no longer involves the participation of EchoStar Communications Corp., the largest DTH satellite television provider in the United States. “We are doing it on our own. EchoStar is no longer a part of this,” added Vea.

The previous plan was to forge a three-way partnership for the PLDT Group to offer DTH service with the programming content to be supplied by EchoStar. The US company was supposed to provide content (including video-on-demand), setup boxes and home antennas. 

But Vea said content will now be sourced from local and foreign programmers. “We will source the content from other providers,” he said. The PLDT Group intends to bring down the price of DTH subscription to a level similar to the monthly subscription fees of cable TV. A cable TV subscription now costs anywhere from P450 to as much as P1,200 a month.

PLDT chairman Manuel Pangilinan earlier said an estimated $68 million is needed to jump start the Group’s DTH satellite TV service. “It is within that range,” he said.

The telecom company was supposed to offer DTH service as early as 2006 but last year Pangilinan said it might not be profitable to offer the service yet, citing probable losses at least during the first two years of operation.

As this developed, PLDT said it will plans shell out P25.4 billion to embark on intensive campaigns to push broadband and fixed wireless services nationwide and expand its product line.

Pangilinan said, “We should have been impacted by higher prices, but the very succinct innovation and new product services launched—particularly the push on broadband and fixed wireless services—we have managed to show significant growth in our revenues.” The Philippines posted the highest inflation record (8.3 percent) to hit the country in three years.

The Philippines’ largest telecommunications company registered a 9-percent increase in its first quarter revenues to P37.899 million from P34.816 year-on-year.

This is primarily due to gains on derivative transactions and wireless service, based on the company’s first quarter report filed on the website of Philippines Stock Exchange.

The number of PLDT’s wireless broadband services subscribers has more than doubled from January to March with a total of 347,958, a 112-percent growth from 163,799 during the same period in 2007.

“We just have to keep pushing the broad line of our products and services for the balance of the year and ensure that we keep a lid on our expenses our cash expense is moving forward,” Pangilinan explained.

For the first quarter of 2008, PLDT widened its cellular subscriber base with some six million cellular subscribers that put its total figure to 31.58 million, a 24-percent increase from 25.48 million subscribers during the same period last year.

Pangilinan remains optimistic with the forecast of the rest of the year. “You don’t know what the balance of the year will look like given the higher inflation we’ve seen in April at 8.3 percent, but so far the net add is quite, quite strong. Remember last year, we have the benefit of the election spending from February to May.”

The PLDT executive said the group was ready to take a second look at offering DTH satellite television service. The telecom executive noted that the cost to go into DTH satellite TV service has gone down considerably.

“Everything has gone down. The prices of equipment and setup boxes have gone down significantly in the past few years. It looks like the economics have changed for DTH. The overall economic feasibility has changed. So, we might revisit the numbers and if numbers are okay, then we will proceed,” Pangilinan explained.

The group holds a license to offer DTH following the acquisition of MediaScape Inc., formerly known as GV Broadcasting Systems Inc. It used to offer DTH satellite television service sometime in 1998 but scaled down its operations mainly due to financial constraint. Its uplink station is located in Pampanga.

The company still runs a DTH service to a handful of subscribers but had ceased from promoting the service because it was having a hard time financing the programs that were provided by foreign content programmers. GV now operates FM and AM radio stations.

The group acquired GV through its wholly owned subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings Inc., PLDT’s beneficial trust fund, in July last year.

Earlier, the country’s largest telecoms firm dropped its bid to acquire Dream Satellite TV operator, Philippine Multi-Media Systems Inc., because of pricing differences.

THE Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) group’s plan to launch a direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television service is seen to finally take off this year, as it earmarks P700 million as initial investment.

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