The government will be joining the likes of TVplus and Affordabox.
On Sunday, January 28, during the ‘Bagong Pilipinas’ kick-off rally at the Quirino Grandstand in Luneta, Manila, Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Secretary Cheloy Garafil bared the agency’s newest project.
The secretary said that they will be releasing a new digital terrestrial television (DTV) set-top box named ‘Bagong Pilipinas’ this year.
According to Garafil, the new DTV box aims to help those who are not able to acquire such appliance, as the country will begin the process of converting from analog to digital terrestrial television this year.
The analog switch-off will begin in the National Capital Region, where stations will shut down their analog transmissions by year’s end.
At the moment, the NCR has the highest digital TV penetration in the country at 82% of households having converted to DTV, as per the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
With that, the PCO decided to create their own boxes named after the administration’s brand to further aid in the transition to digital terrestrial television.
Moreover, the office said that they will be distributing DTV boxes for free nationwide, which they already begun by giving out 1000 boxes during the rally.
But the official did not go into details on how many boxes will be given out, as well as if these ‘Bagong Pilipinas’ digiboxes will eventually be sold in stores.
Garafil also shared that the ‘Bagong Pilipinas’ digibox will also be equipped with the Emergency Warning Broadcast System for calamities, national emergencies, and disasters.
‘Bagong Pilipinas’ will be the latest challenger in the market, which has been dominated by the digiboxes marketed under the respective brands of media giants like ABS-CBN TVplus, GMA Affordabox, and TV5’s Sulit TV.