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Cable Technology Feature Article

May 06, 2013

ABS-CBN Set to Replace Analog Broadcasting in the Philippines to Digital, Cable TV by 2015

By Rajani Baburajan, TMCnet Contributor


ABS (News - Alert)-CBN Corp, an information and entertainment multimedia company in the Philippines, is strengthening its focus on digital terrestrial television (DTT) and cable TV.

With DTT, ABS-CBN hopes to completely digitize the analog broadcast transmission system in the country by 2015.

The Philippines has huge untapped potential for cable TV. According to ABS-CBN DTV marketing head Miguel Mercado (News - Alert), nearly 80 percent of households in the Philippines do not have cable TV, and a majority belong to DE socioeconomic class.

Further, according to Mercado, less than 52 percent of households receive only two channels of tolerable quality with the current analog TV transmission. This is due to poor quality signals and interference caused by buildings and other obstacles.

Digital TV services can address the challenges faced by the cable TV households in the country and help the government meet its target of offering reliable cable TV services to its citizens.

Mercado says, “Digital terrestrial television will diminish the effect of development in the transmission of content and help the government fulfill its mandate of providing citizens access to information as it enables them to view more channels clearly.”

ABS-CBN’s initiative in digital and cable TV is the result of the company’s continuous investment and research in broadcast infrastructure and related technologies. As a result, the company is able to offer digital quality picture and sound for all existing channels, and more content as each network can broadcast in more than one channel.

Earlier, ABS-CBN spent almost a billion pesos to go into digital TV.

"All the network’s efforts of producing world class programs are for naught if the content cannot be viewed and appreciated in its true value, if it even reaches the people at all. But the main reason we continue to innovate is to give the people a choice, an access to a wealth of information and entertainment that analog transmission simply cannot address very well,” Mercado said.

ABS-CBN is also known for other brodcasting innovations in the region. It earned the credit as being the first network to broadcast in color in 1968 and the first to broadcast a locally produced program and live event in high-definition in 2009.




Edited by Rachel Ramsey


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