Sky Cable DTH subscribers to hit 100,000

MANILA, Philippines – Cable TV and broadband provider Sky Cable Corp. expects to end the year with over 100,000 subscribers for its direct-to-home (DTH) service which was rolled out earlier this year.

Sky Cable COO Antonio Ventosa said the company is seeing positive results from the DTH service branded as Sky Direct launched in mid-May.

“So far, we’ve been doing good. We will break 120,000 (subscribers) this year,” he said. 

As of September, the number of Sky Direct subscribers has reached 70,000.

Ventosa said Cagayan de Oro and Cebu are among the big markets for Sky Direct.

“Sky tends to be very urban in our cable coverage so we’re seeing people who are buying Sky Direct are people who are familiar with Sky but there is no Sky available where they are. They are usually in the suburbs, outside our franchise areas,” he said. 

Sky Cable intends to get more DTH subscribers by expanding its distributorship in the country. 

In particular, Ventosa said the company would want to put more focus in Central Luzon. 

In terms of total subscribers including those availing of cable TV and broadband, Ventosa said the company is on track to achieve over a million subscribers by the end of the year. 

While bulk of the total subscribers are those availing of the cable service, he said the company is counting on the broadband service to drive the growth. 

Sky Cable’s broadband subscribers rose 50 percent to 193,000 as of end-September from 129,000 in the same period a year ago.

Last year, the company had a total base of around 800,000 subscribers. 

Sky Cable is part of the consumer business of media and entertainment firm ABS-CBN Corp. 

From January to September, ABS-CBN saw its net income grow 50 percent to P2.85 billion from P1.89 billion in the same period last year.