PLDT gaining more ground on digital content

MANILA, Philippines - Dominant telecommunications firm Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT)  is open to more opportunities to beef up its digital content offering to subscribers as it looks to increase the share of mobile data in its total revenues.

Ariel Fermin, PLDT and Smart Communications Inc. executive vice president and consumer business group head, told reporters during the launch of the company’s partnership with Fox International Channels, they are open to other opportunities to partner with local and foreign companies to provide more digital content to subscribers.

 “We’ve gone beyond telco. Everyone knows we’re the dominant telco company so we’re now moving as we are, as you’ve seen in the previous launches, into digital media,” he said.

As such, subscribers can expect additional digital content offering in the future, following the company’s partnership with Fox and investment in Internet TV service iflix.

PLDT and Smart’s partnership with Fox  is intended to provide more options to meet the entertainment needs of subscribers.

Under the partnership, PLDT Home and Smart subscribers are given access to videos-on-demand content from Fox along with top-up service to allow them to view live Fox channels including three channels for Fox Sports, National Geographic, NatGeo People, NatGeo Wild, Fox News, Channel M, and Star Chinese Channel.

Earlier this year, PLDT invested $15 million in iflix, which would offer consumers in key Southeast Asian markets including the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam top US, regional, and local TV shows and movies starting this year.

Fermin said the investments are being made as the company sees the need to enhance services offered to subscribers with smartphones becoming affordable and accessible to more Filipinos.

 “It’s an ecosystem. You got to enable consumers to enjoy data...It starts with the gadget. It has to be affordable and then you have the data and the content,” he said.

Investments in digital content are likewise expected to allow the company to raise more revenues from the mobile data business in a couple of years.

 “I think as we go for these kinds of activities, digital multimedia, you will expect our data revenues to get higher, more than the traditional services of calling and texting,” Fermin said.

As investments in digital content are undertaken, the company also intends to improve its infrastructure to provide better services to consumers.

Last year, the PLDT Group’s consolidated service revenues reached P165.1 billion, up slightly from P164.1 billion, as revenues from its wireless business declined one percent to P115 billion while its fixed line business booked a five percent increase to P65.2 billion.