The Lopez family-owned network, whose top billing in the industry has been taken away by rival GMA7, is again relying on its instinct that technology will play a vital role in its effort to regain dominance.
Its adeptness in technology has helped it become the leading television station until last year when rival GMA-7 grabbed the pole position. Some of the sound decisions it made in the past were the establishment of its corporate website - the first among local television stations — in the 1996 and ABS-CBN Interactive in 2001 for the creation of interactive game content and maintenance of the website.
The latest technology initiative to come out of the Bohol Avenue-based television network is a video-on-demand and video streaming service that it delivers through the Internet via ABS-CBN now!, which was launched in April last year.
For now, majority of the subscriber base of the video and audio streaming service come from abroad. There are only about 700 local customers compared to more than 23,000 foreignbased subscribers, according to Rowell Tolentino, sales and marketing director of ABS-CBNnow!
"But our goal is to double our local subscriber figure for next few months," the executive said, adding that they will be beefing up their marketing strategy and content to target busy professionals who don’t have the time to watch primetime shows.
"I will not be surprised when local subscribers will eventually outnumber our subscribers from abroad," Tolentino said, citing their issuance of peso-denominated prepaid cards as proof of the upsurge of local subscriber base.
The spike in interest was mainly due to the phenomenal impact of the hit reality show "Pinoy Big Brother," Tolentino said.
Overseas-based Filipinos pay $4.95 monthly for unlimited access to the video and audio content. The top three markets (United States, United Kingdom, and Canada) comprise 68 percent of the total offshore subscribers, while the remaining 32 percent is spread across Asia and the rest of the world.
The official said the broadcast giant is not at all bothered by the emergence of IPTV, the technology that allows the delivery of television shows to subscribers using Internet Protocol over broadband access. With IPTV, subscribing consumers can view the shows when they want it and can even go back to past episodes.
"We may never know, a few years down the road, ABS-CBNnow! will eventually become ABS-CBN Corp.," he said, stressing the huge possibility that IPTV may soon take the place of free-to-air TV.
He admitted, however, that this still may take a decade or so to happen. "But we’re not afraid that this new service will diminish those watching ABS-CBN shows. Our audience is composed mainly of the intelligent market with access to broadband-powered PCs."
He said a separate but complementary technology, 3G (third generation) cellular phone technology, could come earlier than IPTV. He said the recent issuance of the 3G circular by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) could pave the way in two to three years for the public to see streaming videos being delivered to 3G phones.
To further popularize the service, Tolentino said his company has forged a tie-up with Internet cafe chain Netopia to deliver content as a "come-on" to customers.
