ABS-CBN’s Sky Cable backs broadband business boost

Sky Cable Corp, the cable broadband unit of ABS-CBN Corp is looking to bolster its presence in the Philippine market amid rising demand for its services. Commenting on its growth plans, ABS-CBN chief financial officer Aldrin Cerrado said: ‘If you actually look at the requirements of the Philippines, there is a lot of opportunity for a broadband service. That’s why we think, the reason why our broadband service from Sky Cable is growing because there is really a need for a broadband service and this is an area we can be competitive in terms of pricing. Not the type we would lose in terms of pricing because we have the infrastructure for the broadband service’. Sky Cable currently passes around one million homes but notes that there are ‘still about 750,000 homes that our infrastructure can service but they haven’t converted into Sky Broadband’. Cerrado – whose company had a total of 1.3 million revenue generating units (RGUs) at end-September 2017 – is confident that Sky Cable can increase broadband penetration within its base in the short term. ‘Even say a 35% penetration of those households, would definitely increase subscriber base by about 100,000 immediately and 100,000 is almost 50% increase,’ he said. Sky Cable’s net income amounted to PHP75 million (USD1.5 million) in the first nine months of the year, up by 8.7% from PHP69 million in the same period of 2016, as revenues rose by 6.9% from PHP6.41 billion to PHP6.85 billon.