Philippines broadcaster reaches expatriates via Internet, IPTV

ABS-CBN Broadcasting, the largest integrated media and entertainment corporation in the Philippines, will rely on StreamGuys to deliver its news and entertainment programming via IPTV in Canada, Europe, Japan and South Korea.

According to Enrique Olives, director of business development for ABS-CBN Global, there are about 8 million Filipinos living abroad. ABS-CBN is using the Internet to reach markets where satellite and cable delivery is cost-prohibitive.

ABS-CBN turned to StreamGuys for IPTV services after relying on the Bayside, CA-based company for four years to provide streaming broadcast via the public Internet using its TFCnow! service and backend server infrastructure management.

Content delivery networks, such as the one StreamGuys supplies, can leverage relationships they’ve established with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) around the world for IP distribution of broadcast content rather than simply purchasing raw bandwidth, Olives said.

StreamGuys is delivering all ABS-CBN programming as MPEG-4 SD video for IPTV and Windows Media for Internet streaming and download services. For the growing IPTV service, StreamGuys built out a cluster of servers in the United States, Japan and the Netherlands to ensure network capacity. StreamGuys designed the IPTV server infrastructure to communicate directly with IP-addressable consumer set-top boxes.

ABS-CBN owns 35 TV stations, 19 owned-and-operated AM and FM radio stations and 10 affiliated radio stations throughout the Philippines.

For more information, visit www.streamguys.com.