MANILA, Philippines, April 26, 2017 – Leading Philippine telco and digital services provider PLDT announced today the next generation of its TVolution streaming box for its customers. PLDT worked with streaming pioneer Roku Inc. to deliver to its customers a fully proven solution that is easy to use and loaded with great content. PLDT and Roku made this announcement at the Asia Pacific Video Operators Summit (APOS) in Bali, Indonesia.

“Filipinos will be the first in Asia to stream the best in entertainment using the proven Roku® streaming platform,” said Oscar Reyes Jr., PLDT FVP and Head of HOME Business. “PLDT HOME subscribers will be able to enjoy the Roku Powered™ TVolution boxes in combination with our fast and reliable fiber broadband connections with speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second,” he added.

The new TVolution streaming box will come with over 50 streaming channels including popular services such as the Philippines’ biggest pay TV provider Cignal, Southeast Asia’s biggest video-on-demand provider iflix, the world’s leading internet television service Netflix, and largest video sharing website YouTube.

“More Filipinos are streaming their favorite TV shows at home. By combining the best of the Roku Channel Store with leading local streaming services, PLDT will offer the most compelling video portfolio in the Philippines,” said Reyes. “PLDT aims to add more channels to build the most superior entertainment offer in the country.”

The Roku Powered™ TVolution box and service is available to all PLDT HOME Fibr, DSL, and Ultera customers starting from May for an additional monthly service fee of P299. Subscribers can choose from billions of hours of free content or purchase paid content from different providers with minimal additional charges and no contract.

The new TVolution streaming box remote control includes quick access buttons to the following services:

• Cignal TV is the biggest and fastest growing pay TV provider in the Philippines with over 1.5 million subscribers. Cignal transmits 105 SD and 29 HD channels, including free-to-air channels and a mix of audio channels.
• iflix is the world’s leading SVoD service for emerging markets. With over 170 studio and distributor partners including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, NBC Universal and more, iflix offers consumers a vast library of top Hollywood, Asian regional, and local TV shows and movies including many first-run exclusives and award-winning programs. Now available in 10 markets across Asia with recent launches in Pakistan, Vietnam and Myanmar, the company announced it will be making its world class service available in the Middle East and Africa over the coming months.
• Netflix is the world’s leading Internet television network with over 100 million subscribers in 190 markets. Netflix offers a wide variety of series and films, from critically-acclaimed Netflix original series to iconic US, European, and Asian films and series, documentaries, and kids content. Netflix will bring over 400 original series and films to the service in 2017 including the highly-awaited War Machine, starring Brad Pitt and Sir Ben Kingsley, Okja starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Tilda Swinton and Paul Dano; Bright, starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton, as well as returning seasons of Netflix award-winning shows like Orange Is the New Black and Stranger Things.
• YouTube is the second most popular website in the world based on Alexa rankings. As of February 2017, there are more than 400 hours of content uploaded to YouTube each minute, and one billion hours of content is watched on YouTube every day.

“With so much great content available from global and local streaming services in the Philippines, PLDT’s Roku Powered TVolution box is a simple, cost-effective way for customers to watch the best TV shows and movies right on their televisions,” said Andrew Ferrone, Vice President Pay TV at Roku.

PLDT has been continuously improving its broadband services by expanding aggressively its fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) facilities that can provide ultra-fast internet speeds for families. The FTTH lines are expected to pass 4.4 million homes by the end of the year.

PLDT is also deploying hybrid fiber technologies such as Huawei Technologies’ G.fast which can boost data speeds up to 600-700 Mbps over existing copper lines. With these initiatives, PLDT envisions that all its subscribers will be in “smart homes” by the end of 2018.