GMA-7 has no cable nor broadband assets, says MVP

After he sounded the death toll for the future of traditional telecommunications, Pangilinan told reporters how the second biggest television network in the country, GMA Network Inc (GMA-7), fits into his future plans.

The answer is content. Pangilinan doesn't just want to connect Filipinos but supply the content they're sharing.

"You need to understand why a telco needs to move into the media space (as) broadly defined. (It's) not to adjust traditional media, television, radio, print, but also social media, you know, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube. These two spaces are converging."

He explained he sees these companies as competition. "It is possible that the Googles of the world, I'm not saying it's Google, the social networks could get into the telco space… for them to offer and deliver their own services."

If PLDT's acquisition of Digitel teaches us anything about the company's chair, it is that he knows how to eliminate a rival and make his company stronger at the same time.

Digitel, a distant third telco, came up with the strategy of offering low-cost unlimited plans, biting into the leading telcos' profits by forcing them to meet their prices with similar cheap and unlimited offers. The problem was solved when PLDT brought Digitel into its fold.

As a pure utility company, "we're seeing how (PLDT's) margins are getting depressed by staying purely as a distribution company… Our shareholders don't like to see that."

Pangilinan seems to believe PLDT could have a greater grasp on the new media space by controlling more content, which GMA-7 could help supply. GMA-7 rivals the television company he currently controls, TV5, but he explained that the 2 would be united under PLDT-led MediaQuest Holdings Inc.

GMA-7 could also benefit by harnessing PLDT's massive communications infrastructure. The largest television network in the country, ABS-CBN, is already investing aggressively in broadband, while rival GMA-7 has no cable or broadband assets.

Envisioning the partnership from PLDT's side, Pangilinan said, "Telcos have user-generated content but they also need the content of others. Your television content is not user-generated, somebody else produces content, your tele-drama, your news, even your radio commentaries."

"We need to move into that space so that there is eventually some form of a combination between telco as a utility and social media as providing the sort of content that a telco needs to deliver," he said.

"It's beginning. PLDT has changed and we'll (continue to) change. The whole industry will change," said Pangilinan. - Rappler.com

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