LOOK: PLDT completes it’s acquisition of SKY, SKYcable, to end their CATV services by February 27

It was on January 22, 2024 when the country’s largest telecommunitcations company, #PLDT, completes it’s acquisition of ABS-CBN’s own Pay TV and Internet Service Arm, SKY Cable Corporation (known as #SKY). This acquisition amount costs over P6.75 billion upon the approval by the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC).

As a result, on yesterday, January 26, 2024, Sky Cable’s own Cable TV Product, #SKYcable, which was known as “The Biggest Show On Air” in the past, will cease to exist by February 27, 2024. For SKY Fiber, one of their FIber Internet Service Providers of the company will continue to exist, making SKY Cable will be the only Internet Service Provider of the country, where their internet service and coverage area is available. This Cable TV Service ran for about 34 years, since it’s birth in 1990.

In the past, SKYcable was known for their high-quality Cable TV Service available in the market, making their 2000s slogan of it was “The Biggest Show On Air”. When SKYcable’s own Digital Television services was introduced in 2006, they offered their own Channel Add-on service, widely known as SKYcable Select (introduced in 2008), in which the subscribers of the said Pay TV Provider can add more channels on top of the original channel lineup.

In 2009, the company began offering HDTV Cable Services. It’s Satellite Pay TV Service, SKY Direct, was introduced in 2016, but four years later, it was shut down in 2020 due to the ACDO order as issued by the NTC (alongside with the ABS-CBN TVplus Services).

For their Internet Service, SKY Fiber, it was previously known as ZPDEE Cable Internet, then later rebranded as “SKY Broadband” in 2008.

With the acquisition of SKYcable from PLDT, all of the SKYcable Subscribers will be affected, but for SKY Fiber users, it will continue to operate.

Bundled subscribers of SKY (i.e. bundled subscription of SKYcable and SKY Fiber) will be automatically moving to SKY Fiber only internet service, depending on your plan you already have. Alternatively for bundled subscribers of SKY can choose their SKY Fiber Plan they would want to prefer.

For SKYcable only subscribers, it will stop their operations on their Digital Cable services by February 27, 2024. After this date, you will no longer be able to view their cable TV Channels available on it, and you may need to switch to an another Pay TV Provider, i.e. Cignal, GSat, Cablelink, and etc. (especially during the Free Viewing period from January 26 until it shuts down their cable TV services), or alternatively, Free Digital TV.

For Cignal (including SatLite) and GSat TV, they also offer prepaid services for you to be able to watch Pay TV, while also for Cignal and Cablelink, do also offer postpaid pay TV services. Postpaid Subscribers can also Switch to Cignal Postpaid as well.

If you are a Converge Subscriber, you may also switch your SKYcable service to Converge’s own Pay TV Service, the Converge Vision, which is available as an add on to all of the subscribers of Converge FiberX Fiber Internet Service. Plans start at P99/month, and is only available in select areas.

Alternatively, you can also subscribe to an another pay TV provider available in your region, besides Cignal and GSat, or if you are planning to cut the cord and your cable TV bill, you can do so by purchasing and installing a Digital Terrestrial Set Top Box (or even a DTV-enabled TV Set with an ISDB-T Digital Tuner), as well as an antenna to be able to receive the Digital Television Broadcast Signal. You can buy them at your nearest store, or online via Shopee and Lazada.