Cable TV operators still optimistic despite competition

MANILA, Philippines — Cable TV operators in the country are still optimistic despite the soaring popularity of online streaming services and availability of affordable digital terrestrial television (DTT) devices.

Philippine Cable and Telecommunications Association Inc. (PCTA) president Joel Dabao told The STAR the group is bullish on its continued growth in terms of capturing new subscribers.

From the current count of about 2.7 million subscribers, Dabao said “there is a very real possibility that the Philippines can probably reach three million fixed line cable subscribers next year.”

“There’s still belief in growth here. Longer term, cable TV will still grow, it just needs to tweak itself a little bit. The huge bundle of P2,000 a month cable I think is dead already. There needs to be a lot of channel curation and a bit of additional partnerships with other content providers,’’   he said.

“Revenues, I think the cable business will continue to remain flat, just because we will continue to see downgrades of the premium plans, but the lower-tier plans will still continue to get subscribers. Broadband revenues, on the other hand, will go up sharply,” Dabao said.

PCTA has about 300 members nationwide composed of cable TV operators and   internet service providers, serving about 75 percent of the total cable subscribers in the country.

Prior to the lockdown, Dabao said subscribers outside of the NCR were somehow moving toward streaming services, but “not in dramatic numbers.”

He said the numbers of those shifting to streaming services were bigger within the NCR, according to reports of its member operators.

“Streaming was able to penetrate, but not to the detriment of cable yet,” Dabao said.

“The trend is local content is king. Number one channels on cable are always local and that content is not on streaming so much,” he said.

Dabao said the availability of DTT boxes also did not “dramatically” affect the cable TV business.

As of end-November last year, ABS-CBN TVPlus boxes has managed to sell 8.9 million units since its launch in 2015.

GMA also introduced its own high-quality and affordable DTT receiver last month called Affordabox. GMA expects to exceed its 600,000 units sales target for this year.

“The thing with DTT boxes, they only really affect the high revenue markets. For example, a house which has four TVs, the third and fourth TVs which had cable before now have boxes,” Dabao said.

“In Greater Manila Area, those who lost subscribers because of DTTs were those whose subscribers were having a hard time paying their subscriptions. They are not after the content of cable. Also, areas that have bad reception of popular local channels were the ones who lost subscribers, but nothing dramatic,” he said.

At present, Dabao said major growth is being posted by PCTA members that offer internet subscriptions as well.

He said members of the group have also seen an increase in subscribers in recent months following the demise of Sky Direct.