Businessmirror
Written by Lenie Lectura
TELECOM executive Manuel V. Pangilinan has ceased looking for local broadcasting firms that are on the auction block following MediaQuest Holdings Inc.’s purchase of Asso-ciated Broadcasting Co. (ABC). But the chairman of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) said he is interested to enter into similar deals abroad, particularly the television stations owned by First Pacific Co. Ltd. chairman Anthoni Salim.
Pangilinan earlier openly talked about the status of bidding for government-owned Radio Philippines Network (RPN-9) or International Broadcasting Corp. (IBC-13). The broadcast frequency of either Channel 9 or 13 is seen as an important tool to realize the synergies of telecommunications and media.
But shareholders’ consent has been a stumbling block to pursue MediaQuest’s purchase of either RPN-9 or IBC-13. PLDT had also made an attempt to buy 66.67 percent of GMA network for P8.5 billion in 2001 through MediaQuest, the investee company of the PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund. However, negotiations bogged down after MediaQuest reduced its valuation of GMA to about P12 billion from P14.58 billion.
Pangilinan said MediaQuest would rather concentrate on ABC-5 and Primedia Inc. This is in line with its strategy of developing media, content and production resources to complement its other media assets and platforms such as Cignal, a direct-to-home satellite service launched in July this year.
By investing in both ABC 5 and Primedia, a local corporation engaged in developing programming content for television and marketing of airtime for ABC 5, MediaQuest expects to further enhance TV5’s programming, ratings and sales as well as improve the broadcast network’s coverage and signal strength throughout the country.
“That’s it for now. But after we have made the ABC 5 investment, a number of companies that are into broadcasting approached us, including TV stations owned by Anthoni Salim,” said Pangilinan. Read More...
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