PLDT units to set aside $50M for mobile TV

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. units MediaQuest Holding Inc. and Smart Communication Inc. on Tuesday said they will spend $50 million in the next three years to market and further develop mobile television. Mobile TV its a broadcast service that delivers content to many viewers simultaneously through the digital TV broadcast signal for mobile devices – similar to how a conventional TV service delivers a TV signal to homes. Orlando Vea, Mediaquest president and chief executive officer told reporters that commercial operations of Mobile TV start by mid-April this year. Pilot testing for the new offering, however, starts March 11. The service is being broadcast using the mobile TV platform called Digital Video Broadcasting- Handheld or DVB-H. "Mobile TV offers television in way that is both comfortably familiar and excitingly novel" Vea said. At present, the service is available in nine channels that include 25-hours news channels CNN , BBC World CNBC, a sports channel Basketbal TV. Leisures and entertainment channels such as Jack TV and Fashion TV, and music channel MTV . Manuel V. Pangilinan, PLDT chairman said that price of mobile phone TV would be around $400 or about P19,200, but its expected to go down in the coming years . “We will adopt the pricing scheme of cable TV [for the mobile TV service]" he added.-GMANews.TV