SKYcable Corporation is spending between P1.5 billion and P2B for its capital expenditures this year to help sustain the strong growth in its broadband service.

SKYcable chief operating officer Rodrigo Montinola said the amount would be used to expand its pay TV business nationwide as it sees subscribers hitting one million over the next 24 months from the current level of 800,000.

“…Our objective is to basically cover the entire country as well so we can also provide the content in cable to other customers,” Montinola said.

Montinola pointed out that half of the budget would be allocated to expand the service of SKYbroadband in major cities nationwide.

“Broadband is obviously growing much faster in terms of rate. Right now we are about 100,000 and we are growing roughly at 20% to 25% yearon-year and we expect that trajectory to continue,” he said.

According to Montinola, only 15% of the TV population in the Philippines are pay TV subscribers. This is expected to increase with the continued improvement in the country’s gross domestic product growth rate.

“Currently the penetration rate for pay TV is just 15%. As the economy grows, people who cannot afford to do the monthly payments would be finally able to do that. So I think there is still room for growth there,” he said. (Excerpted from www.abs-cbnnews.com)