Bilang Pilipino 2016, TV5’s data-centric multi-platform election coverage, has tapped smartphone brand Starmobile as its official handset provider. Starmobile joins the project’s other partners which include the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), Social Weather Stations (SWS), Smart Communications, Inc., and Voyage Innovations.
Starmobile provided Play Spark Android smartphones to help with SWS’ real-time data-gathering efforts throughout the country.
“Our role in Bilang Pilipino 2016 goes beyond just providing handsets,” said Starmobile product development head Michael Chen. “We want to show Filipinos how our innovations can be used to make positive contributions to Philippine society,” he added.
The nationwide SWS survey began early January. Each of their respondents received a daily SMS with a link to a web-based platform created by Voyager Innovations. Smart provided users with free access to the link, and the results are broadcasted on TV5. The results are also posted on http://www.bilangpilipino.com/.
“The partnership between Bilang Pilipino and Starmobile underscores our goal in providing our voters a platform that offers maximized information access and voter engagement. This is important as we continue to be the media partner of choice of the multi-screen voter”, said Bilang Pilipino project lead Roby Alampay.
Moreover, Starmobile also equipped TV5’s news team with Knight Vision, Up Vision, and Up Max phones to aid in their news coverage across all platforms. These boast built in Digital TV tuners with recording capabilities that should help the network’s personnel monitor and respond to any situation on the field.
“Since 2011 Starmobile has enabled Filipinos to reach for their own stars. This time around, we are more than willing to help the country reach for a brighter future,” ended Chen.