MANILA, Philippines - US-based cable channel Cartoon Network has chosen the Philippines as the first country in Asia for the release of its new brand and high definition (HD) service, which will be broadcast via SkyCable.
This was announced recently by its foreign executives in a round-table discussion with the media in Makati City. Cartoon Network is operated by Turner Broadcasting Company, a unit of Time Warner Company.
Cartoon Network now has the slogan “It’s a fun thing.”
“We want to bring the fun back to Cartoon Network,” said Turner, senior public relations manager James Moore about the new brand. “This is the first time that we are launching HD in Asia and we are happy to do it in the Philippines.”
Lucien Harrington, Turner’s VP for branding and communications in the Asia Pacific region said the new HD service promises to “have a major improvement in the quality” of the broadcast “even in a non-HD TV.”
Cartoon Network’s HD service will be launched today.
Nirav Haji, Turner’s executive director for networks distribution in Southeast Asia, said they are also looking at expanding the distribution of the new HD service to other cable TV companies in the Philippines within the year but declined to specify a time period.
He said SkyCable was chosen as its first broadcast platform because of the cable firm’s large presence in the country particularly in Manila, Davao and Cebu. “Sky has been here for a very long time and is one of the largest networks in the Philippines,” he said.
He noted that SkyCable has been airing Cartoon Network in the Philippines since the late ’90s.
Harrington said it was also the firm that first “saw the possibility of Cartoon Network HD.”
“Cartoon Network is a big part of many Filipino families,” said Claudia Suarez, head of program packaging and merchandising of SkyCable. “Its brand of humor and fun can only get better with the addition of its new HD channel. We are very proud to introduce Cartoon HD to the Filipino audience as part of SkyCable HD’s most varied collection of high definition entertainment.”
SkyCable is available in Metro Manila and in 19 provinces. It has been operating since 1992. Suarez said the firm has cornered about 46 percent of the cable market in the country.