IN the overall picture, declared cable penetration in the Philippines remains relatively low with the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) and Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd.’s October 2006 Cost of Pay-TV Piracy study for Asia Pacific suggesting the country still faces an ‘uphill pay-TV piracy battle’.CASBAA blames piracy for holding back the development of the cable and satellite TV industry with nationwide cable penetration to just 8% of all TV households, or 12.1 million as per the Philippine Cable Television Association (PCTA) in October 2006. The Association also noted few signs of improvement in the year. The number of illegal pay- TV subscribers was reported at 887,000 and estimated net piracy cost due to illegal distributors, largely in the provinces, was estimated to have risen by 24% in 2006. The PCTA echoed CASBAA’s assertion that piracy has been causing content providers to lose revenue, legitimate operators to incur loss of market share and higher programming costs, and the government tolose tax revenues. According to a Manila Times report, PCTA’s President Allan Dungao estimated PHP7billion (US$152.4 million) to have been lost to illegal connections and the number of illegal cable users to have run up to 2.5 million, outnumbering the 1.5 million legal subscribers nationwide. The Association also revealed that only about half of the 1,000 registered cable operators remain operational.The Philippines Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has since partnered with PCTA and CASBAA to organize the Intellectual Property Rights Protection Training Program (I-PROTECT) to improve the competency of government officials in processing intellectual property rights cases.February 2007 saw the Philippines DOJ recommend the filing of 12 criminal complaints regarding copyright infringements from CASBAA against cable operator Maguidanao Skycable CATV and its directors and officers. CASBAA members filed the complaint against Maguindanao Skycable for illegally acquiring and transmitting copyrighted content from AXN, CNN International, Cartoon Network, Discovery Channel, Disney Channel, ESPN STAR Sports, HBO Asia, MTV Asia, National Geographic, STAR Movies, Star World and STAR Sports.The complaints were filed by CASBAA members based on evidence gathered by the National Bureau of Investigation - Intellectual Property Rights Division (NBI-IPRD) following a period of intensive surveillance and a raid on Maguindanao Skycable’s offices and head-end in Cotabato City in the southern Philippines. The case has since been accepted by the Philippine courts and is awaiting legal proceedings.Z-Energy CATV Network and Telmarc Cable Corp. were also taken to court on similar charges. The former is reportedly looking to settle out Inspector Gadget on KidsCo of court, while the latter went through a protracted tussle which saw an appellate court nullify the search warrants issued in 2005 by the National Bureau of Investigation, but CASBAA filed on July 3, a motion of reconsideration to the Court of Appeals in Manila to reverse the decision.On a brighter note, the Philippines’ leading cable operator, SkyCable, is working to retain existing subscribers and attract more customers with a boost to its content offerings. It is bringing on board established international cable brands as well as locally syndicated ones following a recent evaluation of its programming mix. SkyCable will be among the first networks in the world to carry AXN Beyond when the newSony Pictures Entertainment science-fiction, supernatural and mystery channel debuts with shows including The Dresden Files and Painkiller Jane on January 1, 2008.Also new on SkyCable as well as in the region is KidsCo, the joint venture children’s educational channel from Corus Entertainment, DIC Entertainment and Sparrowhawk Media - which was recently acquired by NBC Universal. KidsCo provides programming for children of all ages including Archie’s Weird Mysteries for school children and Magic School Bus for pre-schoolers.Other new channels include crime, investigation and mystery factual and fictional entertainment channel, Foxcrime; children’s channel Disney Channel; women’s lifestyle and entertainment channel Velvet; men’s entertainment and lifestyle channel MAXXX, as well as sports channel Balls.“These enhancements are based on ratings, consumer feedback and commercial considerations. Our overall objective is to strengthen our overall program mix to benefit our viewers,” said Juno Chuidian, Vice President, Programming, SkyCable.And the slew of new channels bodes well for content providers like Comcast International Media Group which recently announced a bumper crop of new deals in the Philippines with Lifestyle Network, Velvet, Maxxx and Balls, cable channels owned and operated by Creative Programs, Inc (CPI).Lifestyle Network has licensed over 200 hours of E! and Them Style Network content including Style Star, Clean House, I Propose, and Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane. Maxxx has acquired top G4 series X-Play as well as the daily series Attack of the Show, while Balls has licensed Soul of a Champion (Versus). Velvet has licensed over 90 hours of programming including The Soup, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, and Sunset Tan.Also in the Philippines, CIMG has licensed season two of Style Her Famous to ETC, while Jack TV and CS have picked up The Chelsea Handler Show and 7 Deadly Sins respectively.New MediaMoving towards digitalization, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is studying various digital terrestrial television (DTT) standards and systems available for its projected migration from analogue television by 2015. An NTC-formed technical working group, comprising representatives from the network operators and industry associations, is heading the study.Having received recommendations for the Integrated Services DigitalBroadcast (ISDB) and Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards adopted by Japan and the US respectively, NTC will also invite proponents of the European and various other standards to conduct an actual test in the Philippines.Key terrestrial rivals ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation andGMA Network Inc. have both embarked on testing their networks for the anticipated rollout of the digital TV service. The former is allocating funds of PHP 1 billion ($US 22.1 million) for the initial launch while GMA has set aside PHP 200 million ($US 4.4 million) for the test phase. Other terrestrial broadcasters which have registered for DTT include National Broadcasting Network and ABC-5 Broadcasting Corporation.The year also saw significant developments in mobile TV, with one commercial service launched in October, a trial in progress and a newventure in the making. Mobile service provider Smart Communications and MediaQuest Holdings’ 360media Corporation, both subsidiaries of telco Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) worked with Nokia to initiate a mobile TV trial from March 11 this year and subsequently launched the full service, dubbed myTV, on free demo from July 24. PLDT and Smart’s President, Napoleon Nazareno revealed that the company’s investment in the mobile TV service for the next three years will come up to some $US50 million.MediaQuest, through its controlling interest in Nation Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), provides the broadcast service, while Smart offers marketing and infrastructure support. Currently, the service offers channels including CNN, MTV Philippines, Cartoon Network, National Geographic Channel, local movie channel Pinoy Box Office, The History Channel, Solar Sports, Basketball TV, ETC and Jack TV. myTV will also carry Philippines Basketball Association’s games live in the upcoming season.While the service was planned to be available for free till August31, the partners stretched the free demo period to October15 as the authorities failed to finalize and issue guidelines for commercial mobile TV services. Scheduled to be available following the free demo period, the monthly package costs PHP 488 (US$10.70) and can be taken up by both post- and prepaid Smart subscribers. Danilo J Mojica, head of Smart’s wireless consumer division expects60,000 to 70,000 users to sign up for the service in the months following October.Citing Filipino viewers’ average television viewing duration to be 4 hours daily, MediaQuest and 360media’s President and CEO Orlando Vea said, “myTV will allow us even more viewing time and will forever change primetime TV as we know it.”Also looking to deploy commercial DVB-H mobile TV service in the country, Philippine Multimedia Systems Incorporated’s (PMSI) DreamSatellite TV is testing eightmchannels on selected Samsungmhandsets, 4Caster M2 encoders from Envivio and UDcast’s network solutions. It plans to use both ISMACryp and simulcrypt to secure content and to provide subscriber access to its service.The DTH pay-TV service provider has five transmitters distributed across metro Manila where the commercial service will be available initially. It will eventually provide nationwide coverage and content via partnerships with content providers including the Associated Broadcasting Company (ABC5).In addition, PLDT’s main rival, Globe Telecom Inc. is eyeing ashare of the country’s mobile TV pie, revealing that talks have been ongoing for a “possible partnership” with a broadcast company for a joint venture. Affirming that mobile TV is of “definite interest” to the company, Gerardo C. Ablaza, President of Globe Telecom admitted that no “timetable” has been formalized as of July this year, and noted, “Getting into mobile TV will most likely be inpartnership with other people.”On the internet protocol television (IPTV) front, IPTV firm neTVision, revealed October 1, that the company has been in talks with GMA Network Inc. to stream live programmes over the Internet to cater to the overseas Filipino worker market. neTVision’s Sales and Marketing Director, Jim Morris Sarimento expects GMA 7 and subsidiary QTV 11 to be added to the company’s offerings of RPN 9, ABC-5 MTV Philippines, nTV as well as over 3,000 Philippinesmade films and TV series planned for its target market overseas. neTVision’s service will also provide online music channels, original Filipino music videos, chatrooms and original local music content available for download.TV viewership data2006/7 also saw considerably valuable TV viewership data released by AGB Nielsen Media Research (AGBNMR) Philippines, which expanded on its study of Metro Manila with the launch of a national urban television audience measurement panel (NUTAM) in October 2006. Some 1,600 panel homes were studied to represent about 90 percent of the total urban population with TV sets – totaling about 37 million individuals.Panel distribution was based on AGBNMR’s Establishment Survey which reflects TV penetration to be almost 90 percent across urban Philippines. The survey found Luzon to hold the largest share of richer middle-class households concentrated in Metro Manila, registering the highest TV ownership at 92,percent while cable ownership is at 23 percent.In contrast, urban Visayas has the largest proportion of the poorest homes at 29 percent, the lowest TV ownership at 78 percent and cable penetration of 12 percent. TV penetration in urban Mindanao is at 85 percent although the area has the lowest cable penetration at 8 percent.In the period studied, Luzon households watched television the longest, for an average 7.5 hours per day, Mindanao homes followed with 7.3 hours of viewing while Visayas households spent the least - 6.7 hours per day.AGBNMR also revealed that subscription to cable or pay TV increased viewing hours. Making up 21% of national urban homes, urban homes with cable TV spend an average of 8.3 hours per day, while homes with access to only free-to-air channels watch an average of 7.1 hours.Boxing matches featuring Filipino professional boxer and reigning WBC International Super Featherweight champion, Emmanuel Pacquiao, were aired in three TV specials on ABS-CBN which took the top three TV programme specials for 2006. Pacquiao’s match against Larios on July 2 ranked first with 29.6 percent AMR; the re-match with Erik Morales in November came in second; and as many as 10.3 million individuals from all urban areas nationwide watched local hero Pacquiao retain the title in his third fight with Morales.In regular programming, the top 20 weekday programmes of 2006 were dominated mainly by fantasy series, Asianovelas and drama series from the two rival terrestrial broadcasters ABS-CBN and GMA including the former’s Super Inggo (No. 1), Komiks (No. 3) and Maging Sino Ka Man (No. 5), as well as the latter’s Captain Barbell (No. 4), Atlantika (No. 8) and Bakekang (No. 10).TV advertising expendituresAccording to a report in The Manila Times, AC Nielsen released ad spend figures for first half of 2006: TV advertising expenditures amounted to PHP22.6 billion (US$491.1 million), radio advertising hit PHP4.93 billion (US$107.1 million), and print advertising took PHP966 million (US$21 million).The top TV advertisers were Unilever Philippines with PHP5.01 billion (US$108.9 million); Procter & Gamble, PHP4.9 billion (US$106.5 million); Nestlé, PHP3.3 billion (US$71.7 million); UnitedLaboratories, PHP2.2 billion (US$47.8 million); Smart Communications Inc., PHP971 million (US$21.1 million); Johnson & Johnson, P859 million (US$18.7 million); Fortune Tobacco, PHP855 million (US$18.6 million); Wyeth, PHP827 million (US$18 million); and Globe, P783 million (US$17 million).

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