One SkySummer is coming and for some families, it comes with leisurely staycations at home or exciting road trips to exotic destinations. Bonding with the family while watching favorite movies and shows—whether on TV or via gadgets—passes the time enjoyably during this sizzling season. And with SKY’s powerful service offerings—One SKY and SKYdirect—summer fun is guaranteed.

One SKY, another SKY innovation that greeted Filipinos in recent months, integrates high-speed broadband, HD cable TV and mobile internet into one affordable and convenient plan.

The triple-play product is a first for SKY and highlights the company’s particular strength— convergence.

On top of having exclusive access to HBO GO, HBO’s video-on-demand platform, One SKY subscribers may customize their plans by adding channels or channel packs through SKY Select; they may also sign up for premium payper-view offers such as movies, concerts and sporting events.

That means hassle-free access to Mom’s new favorite Kapamilya teleserye, Dad’s most awaited NBA matchup, Kuya’s strategy games and Ate’s hit web TV series.

One SKY Premium Plans start at P1,599 per month for home broadband and HD cable bundles while plans with mobile internet start at P1,799 per month.

Internet speeds range from 8Mbps to 64Mbps, while channels are as many as 14 high-definition and 42 standard-definition channels. For premium plans with no mobile internet, there’s an option to get a SKYmobi unit, which will allow them to have internet access on the go.

“We understood the changing needs of the consumers in terms of access and content consumption. With One SKY, they can get their internet and entertainment needs under one brand,” says Jerome Almirante, head of Digital, OTT and Converged Products.

“We would like to expand our market reach through our expansion and also to push double-play and triple-play services to subscribers who only have standalone services,” he adds of One SKY.

Newest SKY pay TV product

Meanwhile, the newest SKY pay TV product, SKYdirect, started 2016 with an irresistible proposition to Filipinos who are still on the fence about going for the direct-to-home option.

“Aside from it being available nationwide, we made SKYdirect even more affordable for our potential subscribers with prepaid kit prices going down from P2,990 to P2,699,” shares Abigail Ng Sy, product head of SKYdirect/DTH.

SKYdirect also has the advantage of offering a “fixed, carefully curated channel lineup backed by research and ratings,” Ng Sy adds.

“With SKYdirect, every Filipino home can enjoy SKY’s rich content for as low as P99 a month, with loading made easier through prepaid cards, pins and mobile load conversion.

Aside from SKYdirect 99, the company currently offers two other prepaid load variants, SKYdirect 250 and SKYdirect 450.

Meanwhile, SKYdirect has also gone the postpaid route through its P250 and P450 plans. Like their prepaid counterparts, the P250 plan offers 28 standard-definition and six high-definition channels, while the P450 package comes with 33 SD and nine HD channels.

“We recognize that there are customers that prefer continuous pay TV service without the need to reload monthly,” Ng Sy explains. “There has been a positive response when we launched postpaid in cabled areas last year.”

SKYdirect postpaid is available via distributors nationwide.

Within the period May 2016 to December 2016, SKYdirect’s subscriber numbers breached 120,000.

Ng Sy hopes to grow this further in 2017 through a combination of consumer promotions and new product offerings, among others.

“As we move towards providing Filipino homes with a seamless experience of content and connectivity, we will be strengthening our partnership with ABS-CBNmobile,” she reveals.

For starters, one’s ABS-CBNmobile load may now be converted to SKYdirect load, with the subscriber getting up to five free extra days on his or her SKYdirect plan depending on the amount of load converted.

Subscribers can also look forward to more channels by the second half of the year, Ng Sy adds.

Looking back at SKYdirect’s year, Ng Sy believes there’s room for DTH’s youngest player even as competitors had the “bonus” of shaping the current market’s demands through establishing baseline pricing and channel lineup.

“Their head start in entering the market is actually proving to be beneficial as they have been able to educate subscribers about the advantages of directto-home service. Ultimately, having these competitors is healthy as they provide valuable market insight and force us to continuously innovate towards services that have a lasting advantage in the market place,” Ng Sy asserts.

For the product head, her team’s goal and vision for SKYdirect remains the same—to be able to provide another service that will allow them to extend the SKY experience nationwide.

“The main driver of our products is the customer, understanding what they look for in terms of content, acknowledging what they can afford and making sure we make it as easy as possible for them to access our service,” says Ng Sy.

Cable TV venture

SKY started as an idea of a thirtysomething banker turned network executive and his marketing whiz mentor in the post-EDSA years when there was nothing they touched that didn’t turn into gold.

In this case, the little brainstorm of Eugenio Lopez III and Freddie M. Garcia was a venture in cable TV, Central CATV Inc.—SKY’s forerunner and the country’s first commercial cable company.

Even before it reached its first decade, SKY was in full-on expansion mode, cabling homes and opening viewers’ eyes from Luzon to Mindanao to the wonders of HBO, CNN and ESPN as well as homegrown channels such as SKY News, SKY Mall and Sarimanok.

By the mid-2000s, SKY has unleashed a blitzkrieg of innovations, many of them industry firsts, such as 112mbps broadband, digital cable TV service, high-definition channels, voice services, prepaid cable TV service and dual-def plans with option to add specific channels via SKY Select.

At the end of 2016, SKY had picked up more than 1 million paying subscribers for its various services. SKYbroadband alone accounted for at least 200,000 subscribers.

Throughout its 26 years of operation, SKY has proven its agility and innovativeness. It has demonstrated this by shifting gears and reshaping itself from cable TV provider to one-stop shop catering to an increasingly wired population’s entertainment and communication needs.

Today, SKY continues to roll out the “wow at saya” for subscribers old and new.

From April 1-30, 2017, all regular Lopez Group employees who sign up for selected One SKY and SKYdirect plans will receive a month’s free subscription. New SKYdirect postpaid plan subscribers will also get 10% off on the install fee.

The employee-subscriber will pay the installation fee outright, and monthly fees under a salary deduction scheme while the account is within the twoyear lock-in period.

“SKY is continuously innovating and remains relevant by offering services that the Filipino household needs.

“Yes, there will still be a lot of new offers and new innovations this year!,” Almirante says.

Sky Direct

SKY Cable Corporation COO March Ventosa during the One SKY press conference in October 2016

Pepping up the team during the SKY sales rally in February 2017

Prospective subscribers and guests swarm the SKY Alive Tour at SM Fairview in December 2016

Lining up for treats during the SKYdirect Pamilya Day culminating activity in Malolos, Bulacan in November 2016

SKYdirect installation in Tagum, Davao