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GLOBE
Telecom is exploring a partnership with a broadcasting
firm to offer mobile-television service to subscribers.
Since
telecommunications companies are not allowed to go into
broadcasting, Globe will have to partner with an entity
that has a broadcast license, said Globe president
Gerardo Ablaza.
“It is a
bit more complicated, because Globe itself cannot offer
mobile TV over digital TV-terrestrial/handheld [DT-T/H]
service. We have to partner with somebody who has the
broadcast license, and then we will provide the service
capability,” said Ablaza.
The
cellular firm has not yet selected a partner. “We have a
couple of options that we are currently exploring,” said
the telco executive in an interview.
Globe is
also keen on offering direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV
service.
Rival
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) Group is
already offering mobile-TV service on a test-broadcast.
It also announced a plan to go into DTH satellite TV by
the third quarter of this year.
“We have
not yet selected a partner that has a franchise. But we
are already looking at that. We are interested in
exploring very seriously mobile TV and DTH services. The
prospects of those are, I think, reasonable,” added
Ablaza.
The
National Telecommunications Commission is planning to
classify mobile TV as a value added service so that both
the broadcasting firms and the phone companies can offer
this.
Earlier,
Globe senior vice president Rodolfo Salalima said
mobile-TV service can be classified as a “special telco
service.”
“Similar
in other countries in the region, mobile TV can be
offered by telcos. For me, it should be that way.
Telecommunications now has a broader audience. Telco
service is also more generic than broadcast. Actually,
broadcast is now only a subset of telco because
technology has evolved since the old definition of telco
was drafted,” Salalima said. |
