ABS-CBN expands digital TV reach

LISTED media conglomerate ABSCBN Corp. has raised the number of cities and provinces reached by its digital terrestrial television (DTT) set-top boxes to 16, it said on Saturday.

In a statement, the Lopez-led broadcasting giant said it had added Batangas province to the list of places covered.

The others are Metro Manila and Metro Cebu; Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, Davao and Iloilo cities; and Benguet, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Rizal and Tarlac provinces.

The company already sold 6.2 million units of ABS-CBN TVplus boxes this year, surpassing its 6-million target and three years after they were introduced to the market.

TVPlus offers six channels: ABSCBN 2; ABS-CBN Sports and Action; Cinemo; Yey!; Knowledge Channel; and DZMM Teleradyo.

Strong demand for DTT boxes translated to Filipinos’ growing preference for digital TV broadcasting.

Kantar Media in August showed that 71.6 percent of Metro Manila noncabled homes already have DTT boxes, compared with 55 percent a year ago. In Mega Manila, adoption also grew to 64.7 percent, compared with 44 percent in 2017.

This comes as rival GMA Network is also set to launch its own DTT product with an investment of P700 million, its chairman Felipe Gozon said in May.

The government is targeting to fully shift to digital TV by 2023.

ABS-CBN’s shares went down

apiece on Friday.