Solid Group says shift from analog to digital not having much impact on viewers' preferences

MANILA, Philippines - A leading telecommunications and broadcasting player said the impending shift from analog to digital broadcasting will not have that much of an impact from the general public’s perspective, and that government has a lot to do before switching off analog transmission in this country.

Solid Group president David Lim said majority of the Filipino public still watch two or three major channels, at the most. The group owns Destiny Cable.

“The Filipino public I refer to is the majority of our society that relies on free-to-air television broadcast as their main source of home entertainment, news and information. This market segment is mostly in the low-income group that cannot afford cable television nor DTH (direct to home broadcast) which is generally referred to as pay TV. This same market segment’s disposable income is quite small and stretched for even basic daily needs. Extra income, if any, is spent on mobile phone loads, major purchases like clothing or a major treat like watching a movie. This market segment’s budget for televisions is for second hand or cheap imported sets,” Lim said.

He pointed out that digital broadcast is not a priority for the current Philippine broadcasters. “Based on their advertising income model, switching to digital broadcast will, at best, yield an equal number of eyeballs (viewers) they currently get on analog broadcast. Therefore, there is no expected additional income to be realized by the broadcasters,” he said.

Lim pointed out that the required upgrade of equipment for digital broadcast (such as studio equipment, news gathering, headend and others) is a technically and financially challenging task.

“More so, if the responsibility of putting up the digital transmission network will be added to their responsibility, this will immediately put the smaller broadcast companies with smaller financial resources at a disadvantage, thus forcing them out of business,” he said.

Lim said that while the larger broadcast companies may have the resources to spend on upgrades and network, the question is, should they be spending on this rather than spending on producing content where the talent of Filipino singers and actors which is a potential dollar earner.

“Look at Korea now. They are exporting not only TV sets and computers but TV programs such at telenovelas and live concerts of their K-Pop talents. I truly believe that we Filipinos are much better than, at worst competitive, with the world talents in content,” he said.

But he noted that government will benefit from the shift to digital broadcast since this will free up UHF frequencies that can be put to more efficient use in industries such as telecommunications, broadband services and the broadcast industry as well.