GMA NETWORK AND PLDT TO CHALLENGE ABS-CBN-GLOBE PARTNERSHIP!

MANILA - The country's biggest telecom company is in talks with GMA Network Inc for the distribution of its media content.

"I confirm we are in talks for the content sharing. [But] no agreement yet," Napoleon L. Nazareno, PLDT president and chief executive told reporters today.

Nazareno did not provide any detail, as talks remain in the preliminary stage.

Felipe Gozon, GMA chairman, last August said the network was talking to PLDT and Globe Telecom for possible media content distribution deals.

GMA's move to partner with telcos came after ABS-CBN Corp had struck a partnership with Globe. The ABS-CBN-Globe partnership would allow the Lopez-owned broadcast company to distribute its media content using the Ayala-led telco's mobile network.

This deal came amid the PLDT group's efforts to create synergies between its telecom business and its media assets following the collapse of talks for the acquisition of GMA.

In October last year, PLDT and GMA terminated discussions for the telco's possible buyout of the broadcast firm's major shareholders -- the Gozon, Duavit and Jimenez families -- who own a combined 79 percent of the network.

PLDT chairman Manual V. Pangilinan had said disagreement over regulatory risk-sharing led to the collapse of negotiations.

Any PLDT acquisition of a broadcast network would have to go through the gamut of regulatory and Congressional approvals. As it already owns TV5 as well as minority stakes in Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Star and BusinessWorld, PLDT's bid for GMA would attract close scrutiny, if not opposition from certain quarters concerned over the concentration of media power in one conglomerate.

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