Take-out TV from Cignal

MANILA, Philippines - We have all been through it  some more than others. Imagine: a must-watch show is on the television, but you cannot stay a minute longer. Maybe it’s a soap season ender, a crucial basketball tiff, a developing piece of crucial news.

Cignal Digital TV now says you don’t have to miss out on the live-TV action. With the recent unveiling of its Cignal TV-To-Go service, subscribers can now turn their Android mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets into screens for real-time broadcast feeds. We are not talking about those mobile phones with telescopic antennas, either.

MediaQuest president and CEO Noel Lorenzana said in a speech that it’s about “(continuing) to push the boundaries of broadcast television. What we offer you today is a sneak peek into the future of media consumption,” and represents “a step further to that vision of actually converging media services in the group.”

TV-To-Go is significantly different from existing, so-called “catch-up” TV services because it allows the viewer to experience live TV feed the same time as homebound people in front of their sets are.

Cignal managing director and COO Annie Naval maintained that the new service is in keeping with what the company envisioned when it first opened shop in 2009. “Four years ago, Cignal had a mission: to improve Filipinos’ television viewing habits across the country.”

The company is currently the nation’s “premier DTH (direct-to-home) satellite provider — transmitting around 70 channels including “free-to-air, SD, and HD,” aside from on-demand service and 10 audio channels. It recently breached 500,000 subscribers, a figure that exceeded target. Still, she replied to a question from The STAR that “We are very seriously looking at one million in the immediate future.”

At the event attended by PLDT and Smart Communications executives led by their chairman and Cignal founder Manny Pangilinan, Lorenzana boasted that the new Cignal service will harness the “combined power of Cignal, PLDT, and Smart,” promising “unmatched and unparalleled capability to reach consumers.”

He revealed that some 54,000 kilometers of fiber have been laid down to “deliver the best broadband, 3G, 4G, and LTE services to consumers all over the Philippines,” with “over 70 million touch points or eyeballs.”

Cignal postpaid subscribers from Plan 430 can avail themselves of the service (it is on beta phase) for free until Aug. 31, as long as they have Smart or Sun smartphones running on Android Jellybean 4.1. A maximum of two devices may be registered. The TV-To-Go app must be downloaded (for free) from the Google PlayStore.

Presently, Cignal TV-To-Go features 13 real-time linear channels such as CNN, Food Network, Cartoon Network, and Fashion TV.

 â€œThe shows you follow now follow you,” concluded Naval with a smile.