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Disney, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery to create joint sports streaming platform

FOX CORP., Walt Disney’s ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery said on Tuesday they will launch a sports streaming service later this autumn to capture younger viewers who are not tuned in to television.

The media companies will form a joint venture to create a new service from their broad portfolio of professional and collegiate sports rights, which span the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball, the FIFA World Cup, and college competitions.

The yet-to-be-named service would offer an all-in-one package of programming that would include television channels, such as ESPN, TNT, and FS1, as well as sports content that is streamed. Subscribers would also have the option of subscribing to it as part of a streaming bundle from Disney+, Hulu, or Max.

“This means the full suite of ESPN channels will be available to consumers alongside the sports programming of other leaders,” Disney chief executive officer (CEO) Bob Iger said in a statement.

Media analyst Michael J. Wolf of Activate Consulting said the venture will appeal to the 40 million households in the US that pay for high-speed internet access, but don’t subscribe to pay TV. An all-sports digital offering also is likely to appeal to Amazon, Apple, and Roku, which aggregate streaming video for millions of consumers.

“It’s a smart defensive move with potentially huge upside,” former Disney executive Bernard Gershon said. The launch will come at a time when cable television continues to lose subscribers. Live sports continue to serve a powerful audience draw, whether on television or online, as NBCUniversal’s Peacock demonstrated last month with its live streaming of the NFL’s AFC wild card playoff game, he said. Still, that audience comes at a hefty price, reportedly $110 billion for media rights for the NFL.

“Let’s figure out a way to split the costs of rights as they go up,” said Mr. Gershon, explaining the possible deal logic. “And let’s create a platform that people will go for a range of sports and capture some of the upside.”

The CEOs have been discussing a collaboration for some time, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. The partners view this sports-centric service as providing consumers with more choice, not replacing Disney’s flagship ESPN television network or Fox’s FS1, which already reach an avid group of sports fans on TV, according to sources familiar with the matter.

“We believe the service will provide passionate fans outside of the traditional bundle an array of amazing sports content all in one place,” said Fox Chief Executive Lachlan Murdoch.

The new entity will be jointly owned by the three media companies, which will have equal board representation and agree to license their sports content on a non-exclusive basis. An independent management team will operate the new entity.

The sports-centric service signals a recognition that there is a large market for sports outside of traditional TV. This platform is designed to capitalize on that opportunity. It also provides another way for these media companies to monetize increasingly costly sports rights.

“This new sports service exemplifies our ability as an industry to drive innovation and provide consumers with more choice, enjoyment and value,” Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav said in a statement.

Early last year, Iger had suggested that Walt Disney wants to keep ESPN and will look for strategic partners and investors, as he sought to take the network online.

Activist investor Nelson Peltz believes Disney can achieve profitability in streaming by bundling its ESPN+ online service with a larger player interested in sports, according to media reports from last month. — Reuters

Globe expects low- to middle-digit revenue growth

BW FILE PHOTO

GLOBE Telecom, Inc. is expecting its revenue to grow by low- to middle-digit figures this year by strengthening its business segments, the Ayala-led telecommunications company said on Wednesday.

“As we move forward to 2024, we are very optimistic that we will achieve continued growth by executing well on our customer-focused strategy and enhancing innovations using digital solutions backed by our firm commitment to network excellence,” Ernest L. Cu, president and chief executive officer of Globe said during a briefing.

For 2023, the company registered a core net income of P18.92 billion, 1.3% lower than the P19.17 billion in 2022 due to lower revenues.

Globe saw full-year service revenues of P162.33 billion, marking a 4.5% increase compared to the P107.52 billion recorded a year earlier.

Broken down, home broadband recorded a 7.3% decrease to P25.11 billion from P27.09 billion; corporate data registered P18.32 billion, 6.5% higher than the P17.2 billion. Fixed-line voice revenues logged P1.6 billion, falling by 18.6% compared to P1.99 billion.

Other revenues recorded a 17.9% climb to P4.93 billion from P4.18 billion a year earlier.

Full-year operating expenses went up by 2.6% to P80.91 billion from P78.89 billion in 2022.

Rizza Maniego-Eala, Globe’s financial officer, anticipates its top line to post low- to middle-digit growth.

The company is setting aside $1 billion for its capital expenditures (capex), lower than the $1.3 billion earmarked in 2023, she said.

Its capex will be funded by internally generated funds, proceeds from its tower sales, and debts.

In 2023, Globe spent a total of P70.6 billion in capital expenditures, which is said to be 30% lower than previously.

“That’s why we’re also very happy and fortunate that the growth that we saw in 2023 was quite robust in relative terms to other telcos we see in the world. As far as expansion continues to explore solutions that we can provide to the Filipino public in terms of a digital service, that can ease the burden of daily life using the different assets that we have at Globe,” Mr. Cu said.

The company also expects the growth of its data centers to drive its profit upward, based on expectations of data center expansion.

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (Philippines), a joint venture between Globe, Ayala Corp., and ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), will build its data centers in the country, expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2025 in Fairview, Quezon City.

Mr. Cu said that the company is also anticipating Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc. (Mynt), the parent firm of its electronic wallet platform GCash, to contribute to its growth as GCash aims to expand its reach.

At the local bourse on Wednesday, shares in the company fell by P22 or 1.26% to end at P1,728 apiece. — Ashley Erika O. Jose

On Zoom, ‘You’re on mute’ is now ‘Are you real?’

CHRIS MONTGOMERY-UNSPLASH

IS THE BOSS who’s giving you an order real or just realistic? Deepfakes are now taking Zoom calls to another level of awkwardness, by making us question whether our co-workers are genuine. A finance worker in Hong Kong transferred more than $25 million to scammers after they posed as his chief financial officer and other colleagues on a video conference call, marking perhaps the biggest known corporate fraud using deepfake technology to date. The worker had been suspicious about an e-mail requesting a secret transaction, but the scammers looked and sounded so convincing on the call that he sent the money.

Corporate IT managers have spent more than a decade trying, often fruitlessly, to train office workers to spot phishing e-mails and resist the urge to click on dodgy attachments. Often hackers and fraudsters need just one person out of hundreds to inadvertently download the malware needed to tunnel into a corporate network. With AI-powered video tools, they’re moving into territory we have considered safe, underscoring how quickly deepfake technology has developed in just the last year. While it sounds like science fiction, such elaborate frauds are now relatively easy to set up, ushering us into a new age of skepticism.

The fraud in Hong Kong almost certainly used real-time deepfakes, meaning that the fake executive mirrored the scammer as they listened, talked and nodded during the meeting. According to David Maimon, a criminology professor at Georgia State University, online fraudsters have been using real-time deepfakes on video calls since at least last year for smaller-scale fraud including romance scams.

Maimon posted a video to LinkedIn (David Maimon on LinkedIn: #bankaccounts #bankaccount #passport #usa #passports #data #money #markets… | 14 comments [https://tinyurl.com/2bax7xd7]), showing a demo from developers who are selling deepfake video tools to potential fraudsters. In it, you can see the real image of a man on the left and his fake persona on the right, a beautiful young woman scamming the male victim in the middle.

This is uncharted territory for most of us, but here’s what the Hong Kong victim could have done to spot the deepfake, and what we’ll all need to do in the future for sensitive video calls:

  1. Use visual cues to verify who you’re talking to. Deepfakes still can’t do complex movements in real time, so if in doubt, ask your video conference counterpart to write a word or phrase on a piece of paper and show it on camera. You could ask them to pick up a nearby book or perform a unique gesture, like touching their ear or waving a hand, all of which can be difficult for deepfakes to replicate convincingly in real-time.
  2. Watch the mouth. Look out for discrepancies in lip syncing or weird facial expressions that go beyond a typical connection glitch.
  3. Employ multi-factor authentication. For sensitive meetings, consider involving a secondary conversation via e-mail, SMS, or an authenticator app, to make sure the participants are who they claim to be.
  4. Use other secure channels. For critical meetings that will involve sensitive information or financial transactions, you and the other meeting participants could verify your identities through an encrypted messaging app like Signal or confirm decisions such as financial transactions through those same channels.
  5. Update your software. Make sure that you’re using the latest version of your video conferencing software in case it incorporates security features to detect deepfakes. (Zoom Video Communications did not reply to questions about whether it plans to make such detection technology available to its users.)
  6. Avoid unknown video conferencing platforms. Especially for sensitive meetings, use well-known platforms like Zoom or Google Meet that have relatively strong security measures in place.
  7. Look out for suspicious behavior and activity. Some strategies stand the test of time. Be wary of urgent requests for money, last-minute meetings that involve big decisions, or for changes in tone, language or a person’s style of speaking. Scammers often use pressure tactics so beware of any attempts to rush a decision too.

Some of these tips could go out of date over time, especially visual cues. As recently as last year, you could spot a deepfake by asking the speaker to turn sideways to see them in profile. Now some deepfakes can convincingly move their heads side to side.

For years fraudsters have hacked into the computers of wealthy individuals, hoovering up their personal information to help them get through security checks with their bank. But at least in banking, managers can create new processes to force their underlings to tighten up security. The corporate world is far messier, with an array of different approaches to security that allow fraudsters to simply cast their nets wide enough to find vulnerabilities.

The more people wise up to the possibility of fakery, the less chance the scammers will have. We’ll just have to pay the price as the discomfort of conference calls becomes ever more agonizing, and the old Zoom clichés about your peers being on mute morph into requests for them to scratch their noses.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

Meralco unit to partner with PhilTower for digital infra

DAVID ARROWSMITH-UNSPLASH

MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) said on Wednesday that its subsidiary is teaming up with PhilTower Consortium, Inc. (PhilTower) to create a digital infrastructure company.

In a stock exchange disclosure, Meralco said that Miescor Infrastructure Development Corp. (MIDC) and PhilTower plan to form and invest in a joint venture company.

The planned partnership seeks “to meet the growing demand for 4G and 5G mobile network infrastructure across the Philippines,” the power distributor said.

“The JVCo will have Philippine-wide coverage and is well placed to support the growing connectivity needs of the country,” it said.

It is subject to regulatory review by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Competition Commission.

MIDC is an independent tower company registered with the Department of Information and Communications Technology that provides tower construction, site acquisition, site permitting and erection of towers, and tower management services to telecommunications companies.

It is a joint venture between Meralco Industrial Engineering Services Corp., a subsidiary of Meralco, and alternative investment firm Stonepeak.

Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT Inc.

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera

Google agrees to pay $350 million to settle shareholders’ data privacy lawsuit

REUTERS

GOOGLE agreed to pay $350 million to settle a lawsuit by shareholders related to a security bug at its now-defunct Google+ social media website.

A preliminary settlement was filed late on Monday in San Francisco federal court after more than a year of mediation and requires approval by US District Judge Trina Thompson.

It resolves claims that Google learned by March 2018 about a three-year software glitch that exposed Google+ users’ personal data, yet concealed the problem for months while publicly stressing its commitment to data security.

Shareholders said Google feared disclosure would subject it to regulatory and public scrutiny similar to what Facebook received after London-based Cambridge Analytica harvested its users’ data for the 2016 US elections.

According to the complaint, shares of Google’s parent Alphabet fell several times as news about the bug surfaced, wiping out tens of billions of dollars of market value.

The lawsuit led by Rhode Island Treasurer James Diossa, on behalf of a state pension fund that owned Alphabet stock, covers Alphabet shareholders from April 23, 2018 to April 30, 2019.

Google denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle and found no evidence that data were misused.

A spokesperson, Jose Castaneda, said: “We regularly identify and fix software issues, disclose information about them, and take these issues seriously. This matter concerns a product that no longer exists and we are pleased to have it resolved.”

The Mountain View, California-based company reached a related $7.5-million settlement with Google+ users in 2020.

In 2020, a different judge had dismissed the shareholder case, but the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals revived it in 2021.

“Most people thought no one would recover a penny in this case, and when the first judge granted Google a dismissal the ‘I told you so’s’ were deafening,” said Jason Forge, a partner at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd representing the shareholders. “That just made Rhode Island and us more determined.”

Lawyers for the shareholders may seek up to $66.5 million from the settlement for fees, court papers show.

Monday’s settlement was disclosed 5-1/2 weeks after Google settled a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked the internet use of millions of people who thought they were browsing privately. Terms of that settlement have not yet been disclosed.

The case is In re Alphabet, Inc. Securities Litigation, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 18-06245. — Reuters

Crypto optimism signals window for traditional traders

ANDRE FRANCOIS MCKENZIE JR-UNSPLASH

AS traditional stock markets face unprecedented challenges, the cryptocurrency market offers a window of opportunity for traders and investors.

The Philippines stock market, like many others, is feeling the ripple effects of the rise and fall of the US economy. Multiple indicators, from gross domestic product growth to the unemployment rate and even inflation, point to a robust US economic engine. However, economists remain cautious of a potential recession reminiscent of 2001 and 2007. We’re not out of the woods yet.

In contrast to this turbulent scenario, the cryptocurrency sector presents a positive narrative. The approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) marks a turning point for the cryptocurrency industry. Bitcoin recently hit a two-year high of over $49,000 as spot bitcoin ETFs began trading in the US on Jan. 11.

This scenario presents a compelling case for diversification. Cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin, offers an alternative to traditional stocks, potentially supplementing existing portfolios. The suggested strategy involves a balanced approach, allocating a significant portion to cryptocurrencies while maintaining investments in stocks, bonds, and liquid cash.

The regulatory landscape in the Philippines further enhances this opportunity. The government’s relatively open approach to cryptocurrency, focused more on monitoring versus regulation by enforcement, provides a favorable environment for increased adoption.

However, the absence of clear regulations for cryptocurrency exchanges remains a bottleneck. The Philippines’ SEC last year postponed the issuance of regulatory frameworks for digital assets following the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Moreover, it recently advised the public against dealing with unregistered cryptocurrency exchanges, indicating a more cautious approach.

Given this evolving landscape, it’s important for traders to navigate carefully and only trade through registered on-ramp and off-ramp applications and other platforms with Virtual Asset Service Provider licenses.

UNDERSTANDING TRADING DYNAMICS
The trading dynamics of the crypto world differ from those of the stock market. Cryptocurrency trading is decentralized, operates 24/7, and is less regulated, offering a broader range of assets, including digital commodities. In times of economic uncertainty, the correlation between stock markets and cryptocurrencies can increase, with investors seeking alternative assets. However, cryptocurrencies are also seen as a hedge against inflation and traditional market fluctuations.

For stock traders transitioning to the crypto market, a deep understanding of blockchain technology and the unique features of cryptocurrencies is crucial. Unlike traditional markets, where financial statements guide investment decisions, the crypto market requires analysis of different factors like technology, founders, market capitalization, and supply limits.

Stock traders should also familiarize themselves with the peripherals of crypto, such as blockchain technology, non-fungible tokens, decentralized autonomous organizations, decentralized exchanges, and cold and hot wallets.

OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD
Cryptocurrency is still a very young industry that only started as early as 2011, but there is a lot of evolution ahead of it. Cryptocurrency is emerging as an alternative market, attracting institutional investments and showing potential for exponential growth. Big asset companies such as ARK Invest project Bitcoin to hit $1.5-million by 2030. This mirrors the trajectories of once-nascent companies like Microsoft and Amazon, suggesting a future where Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies could play a similarly transformative role.

Stock traders contemplating diversification into crypto should approach it with a conservative lens but remain open to learning, as the industry holds technological potential beyond being just an asset class.

Regulatory openness, institutional interest, and evolving market dynamics makes it an ideal time for traders to diversify into cryptocurrencies. By understanding the features, regulatory environment, and potential developments in the crypto market, stock traders can position themselves for success in the world of digital assets.

 

Arlone Abello is founder and CEO of Global Miranda Miner Group, Elite University, and FEASTGold.

Fired Mandalorian actress sues Disney with funding from Elon Musk

GINA CARANO in a scene from The Mandalorian. -- IMDB

LOS ANGELES — Actress Gina Carano sued Walt Disney for wrongful termination from Star Wars series The Mandalorian in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday and backed by billionaire Elon Musk.

Ms. Carano argued in the suit that she was fired in 2021 for voicing conservative opinions on social media platforms including Twitter, which is now owned by Mr. Musk and known as X.

“A short time ago in a galaxy not so far away, Defendants made it clear that only one orthodoxy in thought, speech, or action was acceptable in their empire,” said the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in California.

She also claimed sex discrimination, arguing that male stars who voiced opinions did not suffer any consequences.

Ms. Carano, who played warrior Cara Dune, is asking the court to order Disney’s Lucasfilm unit to reinstate her in the role and seeks compensatory damages of up to $75,000 plus emotional distress and punitive damages to be determined at trial.

A Disney spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Musk, who hurled an expletive at Disney CEO Bob Iger in September when the company pulled advertising from X, said last year that he would fund legal action by users who faced retaliation from employers for comments on the platform.

“As a sign of X Corp.’s commitment to free speech, we’re proud to provide financial support for Gina Carano’s lawsuit, empowering her to seek vindication of her free speech rights on X and the ability to work without bullying, harassment, or discrimination,” said Joe Benarroch, X’s head of business operations.

Disney removed Ms. Carano from The Mandalorian over social media posts that the company at the time called “abhorrent and unacceptable” for “denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities.”

“Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors … even by children,” Ms. Carano wrote on Instagram, according to a Variety report at the time.

Ms. Carano also came under fire for Twitter posts in which she derided mask-wearing during the pandemic and echoed false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election.

Mr. Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, himself generated a backlash for liking an anti-Jewish post on X in September, prompting advertisers including Disney to pause spending on the platform. — Reuters

Low Philippine insurance penetration cited

INSURANCE penetration in the Philippines remains low due to lack of financial literacy and awareness, according to Sun Life of Canada (Philippines), Inc.

“There’s a lot of financial literacy that we still need to work on,” Sun Life Philippines Chief Distribution Officer Al D. Quitangon said in an interview on Wednesday. “We need to continue to educate more Filipinos on the importance of financial security.”

Sun Life wants more Filipinos to understand how insurance benefits them especially with the Philippines’ young demographics, he added.

The Philippines’ insurance penetration stood at 1.68% — the ratio of premiums to gross domestic product — at the end of the third quarter, according to data from the Insurance Commission (IC).

“When it catches you by surprise, we don’t want more Filipinos to experience that financial drought or financial dilemma when unexpected events in their life happen,” Mr. Quitangon said.

He said awareness is still key for Filipinos to appreciate insurance more. “The younger generation really would like to have a purposeful and balanced life. They want to work; they want to enjoy life at the same time.”

“It’s taking out the fear. To take out the fear is simply education and awareness. If you’re more aware, then you get less scared,” he added.

Filipino adults who had insurance fell to 17% in 2021 from 23% in 2019, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) financial inclusion survey.

Only 2% of Filipinos correctly answered all six basic financial literacy questions, while 69% correctly answered half of the questions.

Literacy efforts should focus on the youth because they account for the majority of the working population, Mr. Quitangon said.

“Insurance must be communicated to the youth, so they have appreciation and understanding,” he said. “If we’re able to relate and communicate well what we do or what our services and products can do, then we can improve literacy.”

A bill seeking to include financial literacy in the senior high school curriculum is pending at a House of Representatives committee. Under the measure, personal finance management, budgeting, saving, investing, credit and debit, insurance and taxes will be taught in schools.

As of end-September, the insurance sector’s overall net income grew by 9.4% to P38.28 billion, data from the IC showed.

The premium income of life insurance companies rose by 13.9% to P229.89 billion, while its net income was up by 10.3% to P28.79 billion.

The nonlife insurance sector’s total net premiums rose by 15.6% to P48.21 billion, while net income increased by 15% to P5.48 billion.

Also on Wednesday, the Government Service Insurance System said gross premiums written for its nonlife insurance business rose to a record P9.3 billion last year.

This was a 44% increase from 2022, the state-run pension fund said in a statement. Its net worth stood at P50.15 billion, making it the biggest nonlife insurer in the country, it added.

It said more government agencies were insuring their properties with GSIS. “In the face of more frequent natural disasters, securing insurance coverage becomes crucial in safeguarding assets and mitigating budgetary strains during calamities,” GSIS President and General Manager Jose Arnulfo A. Veloso said in the statement.

GSIS said it had intensified online and face-to-face insurance marketing caravans last year, while conducting training and capacity-building workshops for agency property officers from various agencies. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson and Aaron Michael C. Sy

The nuclear option to energize growth

The 2nd annual Ruperto P. Alonzo (RPA) Memorial Lecture will happen today, 3 p.m., at the University of the Philippines School of Economics (UPSE) in Diliman, Quezon City. The topic is “The Nuclear Option” and the economic implications. The event is jointly sponsored and funded by the UPSE-based Program in Development Economics Alumni Association (PDEAA) and the Philippine Center for Economic Development (PCED). PDE is a dear program of the late Prof. Ruping Alonzo who passed away in 2017 — today would have been his 76th birthday.

The main speaker will be Energy Undersecretary Sharon Garin, the panelists are Dr. Carlo Arcilla, Director of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI); Froilan Savet, First Vice-President and Head of Network of Meralco; Lino Bernardo, Head of Special Projects of Aboitiz Power; Paolo Pagaduan, Senior Lead for Renewable Energy and Just Transition, Asian Peoples’ Movement for Debt and Development (APMDD); and this writer as a PDE alumnus, batch 33rd (SY 1997-1999). The panel moderator will be Jay Layug, Senior Partner of Divina Law and a UPSE alumnus.

So, why the “nuclear option”?

NUCLEAR POWER AND INDUSTRIALIZATION

  1. Almost all major industrial countries in the world have been powered partly or largely by nuclear energy since the 1960s and ’70s. The United Kingdom (UK) opened its first nuclear plant in 1956, and by 1965 its nuclear power generation was already 15.1 terawatt-hours (TWH) or 15,100 GWH. In 1965, the United States of America (US) was already generating 3.1 TWH through nuclear power, while that of France was producing 0.9 TWH.
  2. Nuclear power is generally safe, cheap and highly reliable. Since the 1970s, there was only one major nuclear accident with high fatality, in Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986. The latest nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan in 2011 after a big earthquake and tsunami has zero fatality.
  3. Even when some Western countries have reduced their nuclear power capacity, more Asian countries are turning to nuclear power to sustain their growth. From 2002 to 2022, these Asian countries have increased their nuclear power generation: China from 25 to 418 TWH, South Korea from 119 to 176 TWH, and India from 19 to 46 TWH. Major oil-gas producer and exporter United Arab Emirates quickly expanded its nuclear power generation from zero in 2019 to 10.5 TWH in 2021 and 20.1 TWH in 2022. Pakistan had 22.3 TWH generated by nuclear power in 2022.
  4. Many countries that started “denuclearization” experienced slower GDP growth. In Table 1, one can see that France, the UK, Germany, Spain, Japan, and the US have shown this trend. In contrast, countries that expanded their nuclear power generation have experienced faster growth (at least 2.7% yearly), namely China, South Korea, India, and Pakistan. Taiwan has seen a trend in growth deceleration too, but it is still at 3.2% in the last decade.

WHY THE PHILIPPINES NEED NUCLEAR ENERGY, BADLY

  1. Particularly for the Philippines, we need nuclear because it was coal power that saved us from possible daily “Earth Hours” every day for the past few decades and yet government has banned the building of new or greenfield coal plants since 2017. From 2008 (when the renewable energy law or RA 9513 was enacted) to 2022, the average increase of power sourced from wind was only 69 GWH/year, from solar, 94 GWH/year, and from biomass, 130 GWH/year. Power from geothermal and natural gas (Malampaya) was flat and even declining. Coal power was expanding by 3,620 GWH/year.

The implied capacity factor (ICF) — which compares the installed capacity with the actual generation — of intermittent renewables is low: 28% for wind, 25% for biomass, and 14% for solar. And yet they are favored by law and pushed by many sectors in the country and the world. Coal has a higher ICF of 61%, natural gas has an ICF of 55% (see Table 2).

The mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) could have contributed some 4.6 TWH/year, assuming a capacity factor of 85%. That is bigger than the combined generation of solar plus wind of only 2.9 TWH in 2022. Small modular reactors (SMRs) and even micro modular reactors (MMRs) will greatly help many power-deficient on-grid islands and off-grid islands and provinces like Palawan, Mindoro, Masbate, Marinduque, Camiguin, Batanes, and so on.

I will discuss more of this in the PDEAA forum this afternoon. The event is open to the public and media, with no registration fee for both physical and online participants and will be streamed live on the UPSE Facebook page.

Again, the event is organized and funded by the PDEAA and PCED. But to be transparent, the PDEAA solicited some corporate donations and support, not for this particular forum but for the future PDEAA room at the expanded UPSE building. Our initial supporters are the Aboitiz Power Corp., Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), and Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. Thank you, guys, for your generosity and support. Your companies will be recognized inside that room once it is finished.

 

Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is the president of Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. Research Consultancy Services, and Minimal Government Thinkers. He is an international fellow of the Tholos Foundation.

minimalgovernment@gmail.com

Astara named exclusive importer for JAC Motors in Philippines

JAC Motors (Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Co., Ltd.) has appointed Astara as its exclusive importer in the Philippines.

Astara, a Europe-based automotive distributor, will distribute the brand’s cars, pick-ups, and spare parts locally, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

David Zhang, vice-president of Chinese automaker JAC Motors, said the Philippines is a strategic and practical market for the company.

“In the future, JAC will strictly adhere to the user-centric business philosophy and bolster the relationship with Astara to provide better products and better service experience for Filipino users,” he said.

Astara said that the partnership will allow it to solidify its dealer network, introduce electrified models, and implement effective strategies to promote and strengthen the brand’s image and products.

Astara is also the exclusive Philippine distributor of other Chinese brands such as GAC Motor and Jiangling Motors Corp., as well as the French brand Peugeot. — Justine Irish D. Tabile

Security Bank to use tech to boost car, home loans

SECURITY Bank Corp. expects its car and home loans to grow faster this year as it leverages technology and as the Philippine economy continues to rebound.

“We’ve had experience over the last two years and we’re also making certain technological changes like bringing in applications and developing better systems,” Rahul S. Rasal, Security Bank executive vice-president and Retail Banking Segment head, told reporters on Monday.

The lender seeks to double auto loans and expand its housing loan portfolio by as much as 20%, he added.

Security Bank auto loans grew by 30% last year, while home loans increased by 40%, Mr. Rasal said. Its total loans stood at P502.21 billion at the end of September, according to its financial statement.

“Our auto loans, home loans and credit cards have grown very heavily in 2023 from 2022,” he said. “The difference this year is how we’re going to use technology.”

Security Bank seeks to improve loan processing and will soon upgrade its mobile app to boost customer service and attract more clients, he said.

Mr. Rasal said the bank would focus on app stability and security, which are what customers are looking for based on a market study.

Aside from improving user experience, the lender might also add features to the app including an investment function, Mr. Rasal said.

“Today, retail investors are all doing it in-app,” he said. “That is a fact. Our app will be a one-stop shop for all financial needs. It will be for onboarding customers, transaction convenience, as well as for new products. Investments will be part of that.”

Mr. Rasal said the bank’s lending growth would not be easily affected by macroeconomic factors such as inflation or interest rates given the demographics of its clients.

“The market will respond to certain macroeconomic factors but the market that we cater to is substantially more resilient because our segment is the mass affluent,” he said. “We only talk to customers at a certain income level, which makes them protected from market ups and downs.”

Security Bank’s net income rose by 14.7% year on year to P2.65 billion in the third quarter. Its shares were unchanged at P73 each. — Aaron Michael C. Sy

Apple beats AliveCor lawsuit over heart rate apps for Apple Watch

BW FILE PHOTO

APPLE persuaded a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by a Silicon Valley startup accusing it of illegally monopolizing the US market for heart rate monitoring apps for its Apple Watch.

US District Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland, California, ruled on Tuesday against AliveCor, which had developed an app for detecting irregular heartbeats.

It accused Apple of violating the federal Sherman antitrust law and a California unfair competition law.

The decision explaining White’s reasoning is temporarily being kept under seal because of confidentiality concerns.

“AliveCor is deeply disappointed and strongly disagrees with the court’s decision to dismiss our anti-competition case and we plan to appeal,” the company said in a statement.

Apple said in a statement that the lawsuit challenged its ability to make improvements to the Apple Watch that consumers and developers rely on. “Today’s outcome confirms that is not anticompetitive,” it said.

In an amended complaint, AliveCor said Apple had led it to believe it would collaborate on heart-monitoring technology for the Apple Watch, only to then copy its ideas and embark on a “concentrated campaign to corner the market for heart rate analysis.”

The complaint also accused Apple of “updating” the heart rate algorithm for its watches, to prevent third parties from identifying irregular heartbeats and offering competing apps.

AliveCor had developed KardiaBand, a wristband for the Apple Watch capable of recording an electrocardiogram, or ECG.

The Mountain View, California-based company also developed the Kardia app for analyzing ECG readings on Apple Watches, and a SmartRhythm hear trate analysis app powered by artificial intelligence.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has denied wrongdoing, and said competitors have no right to dictate its design decisions.

AliveCor is still litigating separate patent infringement claims against Apple.

The case is AliveCor, Inc. v. Apple, Inc., US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 21-03958. — Reuters

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