Sky Cable banks on broadband growth

MANILA, Philippines — ABS-CBN unit Sky Cable Corp. is bullish on the growth of its broadband operations, which would likely cushion the blow of its “softening” cable business.

Sky Cable business unit head for the consumer products group Jaja Suarez said the company expects to see a 20 to 30 percent increase in its broadband subscribers in the next 12 months, from the current count of 300,000.

Suarez said the growth would be driven by the expansion to more areas as well as the availability of Sky’s new super speed plans, a set of fiber-fast home internet subscription plans that are the most affordable in the market and offers the most value for their money.

“So with this new fiber plans, we think we can grow the broadband to as much as 20 to 30 percent in terms of subscribers,” she said.

“Competition is very fierce today in the broadband segment and it’s really driven by the rate that the speeds are going. The ability of competition to come up with new products is also very, very fast. Agility in this business is really needed,” Suarez said.

Suarez said the company currently holds a market share of about 22 percent in Metro Manila, and the target is to expand it to 30 percent.

For areas outside Metro Manila where it has operations, Suarez said Sky Fiber’s market share is lower as the company is still in the process of building its broadband backbone.

“We’re concentrated only on key urban areas, so we are not really competing with PLDT and Globe in terms of scope because they have bigger footprint. But where we are, we think we could deliver the best experience that our subscribers can get,” Suarez said.

Suarez said the Sky franchise at the moment only covers certain areas of Bulacan, the entire Metro Manila, Cebu, Davao, Bacolod, Iloilo, Dumaguete and Baguio.

“Right now, we are able to reach 1.2 million homes nationally so we’re continuing to expand. In the next three years, we hope to complete around close to 2.5 million homes,” she said.

“We’re just continually growing our pure fiber footprint. We have a lot of developments in the Bulacan area, in the South Luzon, also in Visayas and Mindanao, we have also identified areas,” Suarez said.

But while things are rosy on the broadband side, Suarez admitted that the cable business has been experiencing a slowdown in recent years, a trend that is seen worldwide.

She said only the mid-to high-tier market segments have so far managed to stay in their cable subscriptions, while there has been a falling out among those in the lower segments which opted to get free content or content from ABS-CBN TVplus box.