The board of Philippine telecoms incumbent PLDT is to invest PhP6bn (US$141m) in its satellite broadcasting subsidiary Cignal TV as well as its television network TV5.
The investment will be structured so that PLDT’s ICT investment arm ePLDT will…
The board of Philippine telecoms incumbent PLDT is to invest PhP6bn (US$141m) in its satellite broadcasting subsidiary Cignal TV as well as its television network TV5.
The investment will be structured so that PLDT’s ICT investment arm ePLDT will purchase Philippine Depositary Receipts in MediaQuest, the holding company which owns both Cignal and TV5. PLDT did not stipulate a time frame for the acquisition of the PDRs.
PLDT claims that Cignal TV is the largest DTH pay-TV operator in the Philippines, with over 250,000 subscribers. It added that TV5 has grown its national market share from 2.7% to 15.6% in the past four years.
“In order to sustain this growth momentum, however, MediaQuest requires additional funding,” the PLDT board stated.
The company continued: “PLDT’s financial investment in media is consistent with its overall strategy of evolving itself from a traditional telco into a multi-media service company. It mirrors as well similar investments in media assets by other leading telecommunications companies.”
Launched in 2009, Cignal broadcasts 66 SD and HD channels nationwide using capacity from SES’ NSS-11 satellite located at 108.2E.
