Sky Cable Corporation, the pay television and broadband arm of ABS-CBN, a leading media and entertainment company in the Philippines, has announced a partnership with Philippine fibre broadband provider Converge Information and Communications Technology Solutions.
Specifically, Sky Cable Corp has entered into a commercial arrangement with Converge that will enable Sky to upgrade its network and improve services to its subscribers by utilising the pure fibre network offered by Converge.
Aside from the network upgrade, the Sky transformation programme also calls for increased operational efficiency, greater financial discipline, and organisational improvements.
However, as news resource Rappler points out, before the new deal with Converge, operator PLDT had apparently been set on acquiring Sky Cable in a PHP6.75-billion (about US$115.6 million) deal that would have ended the company’s paid TV and cable business The deal was supposed to be finalised in March 2024 but was reportedly scrapped in February 2022.
Rapler adds that a possible partnership between Converge and Sky Cable had been rumoured since February 2024 after Sky’s failed sale to PLDT, though the companies only said at the time that they were open to “exploring opportunities”.
That said, Converge isn’t a bad partner to have, boasting the largest fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network in the Philippines with over eight million ports and a fibre footprint extending over 700,000 kilometres that reaches 16 million Filipino homes nationwide.
As of end-March 2024, Converge reportedly serves 2.3 million residential broadband subscribers across the country.
