Sky (cable company)

Sky

The logo of Sky (2011-present)
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	June 6, 1990 (1990-06-06)
Headquarters	6th Floor, ELJ Communications Center, Eugenio Lopez Drive, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Area served	Nationwide
Key people	Antonio Ventosa (COO) [1]
Products	Destiny Cable, Sky Biz, Sky Broadband, Sky Cable, Sky Direct, Sky Mobi, Sky On Demand, Sky PPV, Sky Zone
Services	Cable television, broadband internet, digital cable television, direct-broadcast satellite television, mobile internet, pay per view, video on demand
Revenue	₱8.76 billion (FY 2016)[2][3]
Owner	ABS-CBN Corporation (59.4%) Sky Vision Corporation (4.9%)[2] Sampaquita Communications Pte., Ltd. (35%) minorities (1%)
Parent	ABS-CBN Corporation
Website	www.mysky.com.ph

Sky Cable Corporation, commonly known as Sky, is a Filipino telecommunications company based in Diliman, Quezon City. It is the country's largest cable television provider in terms of number of subscribers and the country's largest pay TV provider in terms of revenue. It is a subsidiary of the media conglomerate ABS-CBN Corporation. Sky operates in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao, Metro Naga, Baguio, and other key cities and municipalities throughout the country through its various subsidiaries.^[4]

Sky was founded on June 6, 1990 by Benpres Holdings Corporation (now Lopez Holdings Corporation) as Central CATV, Inc. Today it expanded to offer digital cable television, direct-broadcast satellite television, cable broadband internet, mobile internet, pay per view, and video on demand services to its one million subscribers nationwide, two hundred thousand of which are cable broadband internet subscribers.^[5]

History

On 6 June 1990, Sky Cable Corporation was incorporated as Central CATV, Inc.^[6] On 25 March 1991, Sky Vision Corporation, a holding company incorporated with the primary purpose of buying and owning stocks of Central CATV, Inc. was founded.

On March 30, 1995, Central CATV Inc. was granted a 36-year provisional franchise to establish, construct, maintain and operate community antenna television system in the Philippines through Republic Act 7969.^[7]

In 1997, Sky Vision Corporation acquired 47% of Pilipino Cable Corporation for 900 million pesos.^[8] In 2001, Sky Cable and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company's Home Cable entered into a master consolidation agreement to form the holding company Beyond Cable, Inc.^[6] In April 2008, then ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation (now ABS-CBN Corporation), started consolidating the cable company’s fiscal result into its financial statement.^[9]

In May 2011, Singapore-based firm Sampaquita Communications Pte., Ltd. acquired 40 percent of Sky Cable through Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDR) worth 3.612 billion and 250 million pesos of convertible notes to fund the expansion of Sky Cable’s broadband internet and cable television services.^[10]

On 11 May 2012, Sky Cable acquired the assets of Destiny Cable (from Destiny Cable Inc.), UniCable (from Uni-Cable TV, Inc.) and MyDestiny broadband internet (from Solid Broadband Corporation) with consolidating value of 3.497 billion pesos.^[11][12]

In 2013, Sky Cable revenues increased by 18% to P6.99 billion from P5.94 billion. The growth in Sky Cable revenues was partly attributable to the acquisition of Destiny Cable, Inc. Postpaid revenues grew by 16% and broadband revenues by 33%. SKY’s cable TV subscriber count improved by 10 percent as of the end of 2012 while SKYbroadband registered a 44 percent growth on its base versus the previous year.^[13]

In 2013, Sky discontinued its voice over IP service and started offering bundled plans with ABS-CBN Mobile postpaid service which includes a wireless landline connection, SMS, and voice.

According to news reports by Interaksyon and Manila Times, Sky is planning to enter the direct-to-home satellite market with an initial investment of 252 million pesos to roll-out direct broadcast satellite service across 251 cities and municipalities in the Philippines.^[14][15] Despite the opposition from PLDT (Cignal) and other pay TV firms, NTC on a decision dated December 23, 2015, granted Sky a provisional authority to install, operate and maintain a direct broadcast satellite service in various cities and municipalities for a period of 18 months.^[16]

Products and services

Sky Cable

Sky Cable is the flagship brand of Sky which operates cable television. It has around five hundred thousand (500,000) subscribers in Metro Manila, suburbs and key cities in the provinces which include Metro Cebu and Metro Davao. Sky is currently migrating its subscribers from analog to digital to improve its services and protect its contents from signal piracy. It is the first cable television provider in the country to offer local and foreign high-definition cable channels.

Destiny Cable

Destiny Cable (formerly Global Destiny Cable) is the only other cable television brand of Sky. It has around two hundred thousand (200,000) subscribers in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu. Its brand along with its assets was acquired by Sky from Destiny Cable, Inc. in 2012. The assets of Uni-Cable was also consolidated in this brand after the acquisition of the asset from Uni-Cable TV, Inc. Destiny is also migrating its subscribers from analog to digital.

Sky Broadband

Sky Broadband is the broadband internet service brand of Sky launched in early 2011. The assets of MyDestiny broadband internet was consolidated in this brand after the acquisition from Solid Broadband Corporation. It has over one hundred seventy thousand (170,000) thousand subscribers and is currently the fastest growing segment of the company. In 2012, Sky Broadband became the first internet service provider in the country to offer residential ultra high-speed internet with a download speed of up to 200 Mbit/s in select residential areas in Metro Manila.

Sky Direct

Sky Direct is the satellite television brand of Sky. It offers direct-broadcast satellite television in the country. It boasts a nationwide coverage and exclusive HD and SD channels not available on other providers. As of October 2016, Sky Direct has over seventy thousand (70,000) subscribers.

Sky Biz

Sky Biz is the enterprise service provider brand of Sky. It offers integrated services such as dedicated ultra high-speed broadband internet to small and medium scale businesses in the country. At present, Sky Biz has over three thousand (3,000) enterprise subscribers.

Sky On Demand

Sky On Demand is the over-the-top content brand of Sky. It offers TV everywhere service to Sky Broadband and Sky Mobi subscribers. It allows users to watch video on demand contents of Sky Cable on any screen and devices.

Sky Mobi

Sky Mobi is the mobile internet brand of Sky. It is powered by Globe Telecom on a nationwide basis and is available for subscribers within Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao. It offers an internet download speed of up to 12 Mbit/s using the Sky Mobi pocket WiFi with a 6 Gigabyte data cap per month. It is bundled with Sky On Demand.

Subsidiaries

Here is a list of assets owned by Sky Cable Corporation. Note that these are also recognized as an indirect subsidiary of the parent (ABS-CBN Corporation). All are wholly owned and operated unless otherwise indicated.

• Bisaya Cable Television Network, Inc., through Telemondial Holdings, Inc.
• Bright Moon Cable Networks, Inc.
• Cavite Cable Corporation
• Cebu Cable Television, Inc., 30% direct and 70% through Pacific CATV, Inc.
• Cepsil Consultancy and Management Corporation
• Davao Cableworld Network, Inc., through Pilipino Cable Corporation
• Discovery Cable, Inc. (70%)
• First Ilocandia CATV, Inc., 91.25% through Pilipino Cable Corporation
• HM Cable Networks, Inc.
• HM CATV, Inc.
• Home-Lipa Cable, Inc. (60%)
• Hotel Interactive Systems, Inc.
• Isla Cable TV, Inc.
• JMY Advantage Corporation (95%)
• Mactan CATV Network, Inc., through Pacific CATV, Inc.
• Medianow Strategies, Inc. (79.7%)
• Moonsat Cable Television, Inc., 55% direct and 45% through Telemondial Holdings, Inc.
• Pacific CATV, Inc. (91.52%) through Pilipino Cable Corporation
• Pilipino Cable Corporation, 54.5% direct and 45.5% through Telemondial Holdings, Inc.
• Satellite Cable TV, Inc.
• Suburban Cable Network, Inc. (92.5%)
• Sunvision Cable, Inc.
• Sun Cable Holdings, Inc.
• Sun Cable Systems, Inc., through Sun Cable Holdings, Inc.
• Tarlac Television Network, Inc.
• Telemondial Holdings, Inc.

References

External links

• Official website
  • Beta Version
• Sky Cable on ABS-CBN Investor Relation
• Sky Cable Corporation on BusinessWeek
• Sky Cable Corporation on JobStreet.com
• Sky Cable Review on whitehatseorankings.com