DTV Pilipinas has learned from sources that GMA Network is planning to release their own branded Digital terrestrial television (DTT) device by next year.
Sources are saying that the DTT device is still currently under “final testing”, but they target to introduce the device to the market by First quarter of 2019.
They did not give any specification on the device, but they explained that they want a device that will also be “mobile-friendly”.
When asked if GMA will also offer exclusive channels on their own DTT device, our source says that they are currently in the works.
But when asked if the network will consider offering High-definition content, they replied “good suggestion”.
GMA Network has been teasing that they are planning to release a “Digital TV” device since 2016.
GMA New Media, Inc. (NMI) had presented a prototype device during the IMMAP Digiconn event in October 2016, showing a Digital TV tuner with the Android platform, where they claim “ordinary TV can be turned into Smart TV”.
Felipe L. Gozon, GMA Network chairman and CEO, told reporters on the sidelines of the annual stockholders’ meeting last May that planned to release their digital TV device by June.
Gozon claimed that the device has been patented, and it will be “smaller and cheaper” than the competitor’s product, as reported by online website Rappler.
The network’s main competitor is ABS-CBN, which first tested their DTT device under the TV+ brand in 2011 in select provincial areas, and officially released the device under the ABS-CBN TVplus brand in about February 2015.
Daily business newspaper BusinessWorld also reported that the network has invested more than PHP700 million for the DTT broadcast, but the network “are still figuring out how to monetize it”.
The network did not release any Digital TV device last June.
