SkyCable aims to grow market, signs 3 deals

Rather than aim for an increase in pay TV (television) market share, a ranking Sky Cable Corp. official said on Monday the company is gunning to expand the market which, at its present state, continues to suffer from rampant illegal cable connections. “Let’s put it this way, instead of increasing the combined market shares of Sky, Destiny [Destiny Cable Inc.], MyDestiny [Solid Broadband Corp.] and Uni-Cable TV in the pay TV and cable broadband businesses, we can expand the market with digitization. Instead of fighting for a bigger share of a very small market it is better to expand the market size. If we offer varied and affordable cable TV subscriptions, the market will grow. We would like to think that way rather than all of us eating the same market size,” said SkyCable Chief Operating Officer Rodrigo Montinola, in a phone interview yesterday. UniCable is a direct-to-home (DTH) cable TV subscription service covering the areas in Cebu. Solid Broadband, meanwhile, is a broadband service company that operates the MyDestiny brand. Destiny is a provider of cable TV service, similar to what SkyCable offers. On May 11 SkyCable signed separate deals with these companies that are under Solid Group Inc. owned by the Lim family. “The combined market share is probably 45 percent. The rest is shared by our rivals including Cignal, Dream Satellite TV and Cable Link,” said Montinola. The agreements involve the sale and transfer of Destiny Cable’s assets used in its business of constructing, maintaining and operating community antennae television systems for public and commercial purposes to Sky Cable, at a purchase price of P2,403,421,354. Another asset purchase agreement was executed between Solid Broadband and SkyCable. Under the P1-billion deal, Solid Broadband will sell, transfer and convey to SkyCable all assets used in the business of operating commercial telecommunications facilities, coastal stations for ships-at-sea, aeronautical stations for aircraft in flight, television and broadcasting stations, and other telecommunications services. Meanwhile, Uni-Cable agreed to sell, transfer and convey to Sky Cable all of Uni’s assets used in its business of operating a cable antenna television system in Mandaue and Lapu Lapu City, Cebu province, including, but not limited to, a satellite TV system, cable TV headend station, repeaters, booster, and other related equipment, at a purchase price of P93,578,646. SkyCable will use both equity and borrowed funds to finance the purchase of the three companies’ assets which will be used in the expansion of its television and broadband business. “Funding will be sourced from a combination of equity and borrowings. The details are still being planned,” said Montinola. SkyCable has no plans of acquiring more cable TV firms. “This is it. Even before this transaction we are already a strong No. 1 in the pay TV segment,” said the official. For his part, David Lim, president of DCI, SBC and UNI, said “The pay TV and broadband markets require continuous significant investments, if we are to keep up with our major competitors, particularly the direct-to-home satellite and telco companies. We are gratified by the loyalty of our Destiny Cable subscribers and MyDestiny broadband subscribers all these years, and would always want to give them the best products and services possible. However, we realized that this will entail resources, for digitizing our cable network and expanding our broadband services, that we do not have. We believe our agreement with SkyCable will allow subscribers to enjoy the benefits of the latest technologies.” He added that “our tieup with SkyCable came at an opportune time as it allows us to focus on our other core businesses.” Our holding company Solid Group Inc. markets and distributes mobile phone brand MyPhone.” The cable industry has recorded billions of pesos in revenue lost due to illegal cable connections. Further, the industry cited that there is a one-on-one ratio between a paying cable subscriber and an illegal connect. This translates to about P6.3 billion in losses annually for the industry.t With the deal, this gives us the opportunity to continue with our digitization efforts to curb illegal connections. Eventually, we will apply digitization to Destiny Cable subscribers,W said Montinola. Sky Cable is aiming to convert about 80 percent of its 500,000 subscribers to go digital by year-end. About P1.5 billion has been earmarked for capital expenditures.

Sky Cable buys Solid’s Destiny Cable

Lopez-led Sky Cable Corp. has struck a deal to acquire Solid Group’s Destiny Cable television and related broadband Internet and pay TV businesses for P3.5 billion, thus solidifying its position as the leader in the cable TV industry. Sky Cable signed late Friday a deal to buy the assets of Destiny Cable Inc., Solid Broadband Corp. and Uni-Cable TV Inc. Solid Broadband owns the cable infrastructure that is used by pay TV provider Destiny Cable, while Uni-Cable is a niche cable TV provider in Cebu with estimated subscribers of between 3,000 and 5,000. The consolidation of Solid Group’s cable units with Sky Cable is seen giving the Lopez company a combined 45 percent share of the pay TV business serving about 650,000 households nationwide, said Sky Cable chief operating officer Rodrigo Montinola in a phone interview last Saturday. “We are happy with the opportunity to extend the unique advantages of the digital cable TV and cable broadband Internet platforms to Destiny and MyDestiny subscribers. As we plan these out, we will take extra care not to disrupt the existing services of the current subscribers—they will continue to pay same monthly fees for their subscribed plans, at the same payment centers, and can continue to reach customer service at the same numbers,” Montinola said. Montinola also said that all contracts with content providers would be honored. Destiny Cable president David Lim, meanwhile, said the sale of cable TV assets would allow the company to focus on other businesses. Solid Group markets and distributes Filipino mobile brand MyPhone. “Our tie-up with Sky Cable came at an opportune time as it allows us to focus on our core businesses,” he said. He said the Destiny cable brand would do better in the hands of Sky Cable, which is a subsidiary of ABS-CBN Corp. “The pay TV and broadband markets require continuous, significant investments, if we are to keep up with our major competitors, particularly the direct-to-home satellite and telecom companies,” Lim said. “We realized that this will entail resources, for digitizing our cable network and expanding our broadband services, which we do not have. We believe our agreement with Sky Cable will allow subscribers to enjoy the benefits of the latest technologies,” Lim said. Sky Cable, the country’s cable TV industry leader, has about half a million subscribers in the Philippines, mostly located within Metro Manila. On the funding for Sky Cable’s acquisition of Destiny, Montinola said it would be covered by a combination of equity and loans. Broadcasting giant ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. has a 60 percent interest in Sky Cable while the remaining 40 percent is held by STT Communications of Singapore, which has investments in the form of depositary receipts. Founded in 1990, Sky Cable is the dominant player in the cable TV business, but pay TV faces stiff competition from direct-to-home or satellite TV providers like Cignal and Dream TV. In 2010, Sky Cable also launched the Sky Broadband Ultra High Speed, an Internet connection subscription that offers speeds of up to 112 mbps. It also launched a TV on Demand service “iWantv” in 2010, which allows subscribers to catch up on missed episodes of favorite ABS-CBN shows on their desktops or laptops.

Sybase 365 Enables Globe Telecom To Expand Its Ipx Connectivity Globally

Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase, Inc., the global leader in mobile messaging and mobile commerce services, today announced it has been working with Globe Telecom, Philippines' leading mobile operator, running live commercial voice traffic across multiple Asian operators. IPX Voice is one of several innovative services Sybase 365 offers on its Sybase® IPX 365(TM) network, enabling Globe to exchange international calls directly with other mobile operators rather than routing calls through traditional wholesale voice carriers. "Today, our customers expect the highest quality of service. As we provide services and solutions that give our subscribers a more enriched mobile experience, the same is expected for international calls," said Rizza Maniego-Eala, International Business Group head of Globe Telecom. "Through this partnership, with Sybase 365, we will have direct control over the routing and quality of voice calls which can positively increase international voice revenues. In addition, Globe will be well positioned to expand its IPX connectivity globally across Asia and EMEA." IPX lays the foundation for operators to establish direct commercial and technical interconnect with each other, specifically for cross regional connectivity. "Globe's live commercial voice traffic over IPX is a further testament that voice hubbing via IPX is both technically feasible and commercially viable," said Howard Stevens, senior vice president, global messaging solutions for Sybase 365. "With the growth of our IPX community, from CSL and dtac, who were the first operators to connect to the Sybase 365 IPX Voice Hub, the addition of a number of operators including Globe further demonstrates our leadership in the evolution to IPX. Sybase 365 is becoming the mobile industry's preferred partner for connecting with service providers over private IP networks across the globe." The Sybase IPX 365 network is designed to serve both fixed and mobile network operators with premium quality service and security required in the conversion to IP networks. The full suite of IPX services includes connectivity to BlackBerry® Infrastructure, global data roaming (GRX), SMS and MMS messaging hubs, IPX Voice and roaming signalling --all run over a high quality Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network. Sybase 365's Global Operator survey found that majority of operators surveyed (63.5%) plan to deploy IPX over the next one to three years. The findings underscore the firm grasp of the benefits and opportunities for IPX that operators have and that IPX sets the foundation as the industry moves towards all IP services, including LTE. About Globe Globe Telecom is a leading full service telecommunications company in the Philippines, serving the needs of consumers and businesses across an entire suite of products and services including mobile, fixed, broadband, data connections, internet and managed services. Its principals are Ayala Corporation and Singapore Telecom who are acknowledged industry leaders in the country and in the region. For more information, visit www.globe.com.ph . Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/talk2Globe and Facebook: http://facebook.com/GlobePH . About Sybase 365Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase, Inc. (an SAP company; NYSE: SAP), is the global leader in enabling mobile information services for mobile operators, financial institutions and enterprises. We provide our customers with the widest offering in SMS, MMS, GRX, IPX interoperability, end-to-end mobile commerce solutions, innovative mCRM, mobile marketing and content delivery services. Sybase 365 processes more than 1.8 billion messages per day, reaching 900 operators and 5.5 billion subscribers around the world. For more information, visit: www.sybase.com/365 . Read our blogs: http://blogs.sybase.com . Sybase, Sybase 365, Sybase IPX 365 and other Sybase products and services mentioned in the release, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sybase, Inc. ® indicates registration in the United States. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Forward-looking StatementAny statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.