TV game shows boost PLDT’s income

Television game shows have boosted the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.’s national direct distance (NDD) service, generating over 20 million minutes with a corresponding gross revenue of P200 million a year.

PLDT vice-president for national retail marketing Joaquin San Agustin said that the introduction of usage-based services augmented traditional NDD service last year.

Game shows such as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and the Weakest Link on IBC-13, Game Ka Na Ba on ABS-CBN 2, the defunct Korek Ka Dyan on GMA 7, as well as interactive services such as LoveLines and Horoscope make use of PLDT’s network extensively when prospective contestants call up designated phone numbers to join the show or want to avail themselves of certain services.

Currently the most popular game show in the country, is Who Wants To Be A Millionaire hosted by Christopher de Leon, The Weakest Link hosted by Edu Manzano and Game Ka Na Ba of Kris Aquino each charged P10 per minute per call with each call lasting around five minutes.

It is said that a contestant of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has to call at least 30 to 50 times for a single day in order to be chosen a contestant.

"The 20 million minutes would not have been possible if we relied on normal long distance calls," San Agustin said.

PLDT also noted an increase in the number of subscribers who have activated their basic NDD feature. To date, around 84 percent of total number of subscribers had their NDD feature activated.

Meanwhile, the company also saw an increased activation of basic international direct distance (IDD) phone features with around 58 percent of total base having IDD services.

PLDT’s uniform 40-cents-a-minute IDD rate implemented in February 2000 also helped arrest declining IDD outbound minutes.

It also introduced the first destination specific discounted calling service – the PLDT budget card – which carries a uniform rate of 24 cents per minute for calls to the US, Canada, and Hawaii.

The company aims to protect its revenue base this year by coming up with usage-based customer retention programs and implementing a more direct marketing to retain high value customers.

PLDT also intends to increase long distance services, both NDD and IDD, through the introduction of more premium phone services, more budget card variants, continued usage of direct distance dialing activation programs, as well as customer education on product benefits.

It estimates a 2.1 million subscriber base for the year that ended, with a 68-percent market share in the fixed line business. The number represents an increased of over 100,000 subscribers, 95 percent of which is prepaid.