PLDT subsidiary eyes tieup with 4 firms, drops plan to acquire top TVstation

MediaQuest, a newmedia undertaking of Philippine Long Distance Co. (PLDT) is set to enter into partnerships with four content providers even as the firm is likely to abandon plans of owning one of the top local television stations due to "unreasonable" pricing.

Antonio Samson, MediaQuest president, said they need to further strengthen the programming of Home Cable and Nation Broadcasting Corp. (NBC) to make them more competitive. Both are recent acquisitions of PLDT which were placed under MediaQuest supervision.

"We're playing catch up. We can provide the transport but we don't have content. So that's what we're trying to build up," he said.

Aside from serving the needs of Home Cable and NBC, Samson said they want programs that would fit into other PLDT subsidiaries such as Infocom Technologies Inc., an Internet service provider (ISP), and Smart Communications Inc. which is already tapping the Internet for its mobile phone business.

Samson refused to divulge details of the deal with the content providers although he stressed that MediaQuest has allocated a considerable amount of money for the acquisition of or a joint venture with start-up firms.

"These start-up companies should complement our various businesses. We are currently fine-tuning this strategy," he said.

Aside from looking for information providers that would be of interest to MediaQuest customers, Samson said they also wanted to own a television station to complete its newmedia business and complete the PLDT convergence plan.

But while MediaQuest has been talking to a number of popular television networks, Samson said they might settle for a channel in the ultra-high frequency (UHF) frequency spectrum such as 21, 23, 29, among others.

Samson noted that after the recent Warner-AOL merger, some TV stations are now thinking of demanding for a higher price.

"It's either that they don't want to sell or their prices are such that they don't make sense, making us think of whether we should put our money on a dinosaur when newmedia or interactive media is now taking over," he said.

According to Samson, if the popular channels become very expensive, UHF channels would be another viable medium since they are much more affordable.

"A TV channel is a must but we can go UHF and have a channel which we could build up. You can make a product so expensive that people would be forced to look for an alternative. That's the economic rule of substitute," he said.

Earlier, there were reports that MediaQuest is looking at channels five and seven for its search for a broadcast firm but the discussions are yet to reach an advanced stage.--