By J. Anthony Reyes
The future is bright for SkyCable — and for now the sky’s the limit.
Since the Lopezes regained control of ABS-CBN after the fall of Marcos, they worked to make their television network shine bright. They started by dazzling audiences with Hong Kong-produced graphics, charisma– countenanced news talents, and no-nonsense no-bull talk-and-issue shows.
Metro Manila is hungry for good television. But off-air channels are too commercialized (most of the time boring), and homes are looking for alternative boob-tube entertainment. Many bought boosters (which then sold for around P7,000) to receive Clark Airbase’s FEN signals, or parabolic dishes (for P100,000-up) to pick up satellite broadcasts. Television giant ABS-CBN network was aware of this, and drummed up plans to capitalize from it, planning to leave the other networks behind by building a cable television empire.
The Lopezes aren’t new to the cable television business. Since 1969, they have operated the country’s first cable television
system in Baguio (still alive today with around 2,000 subscribers), and long before they had plans to bring it to Manila. But then came the media-repressive Marcos regime years, which delayed the implementation, and it wasn’t until 1990 that they could resume the plans.
ABS-CBN set up a new unit called Strategic Planning Group to handle the cable project, christened SkyCable, and chose young executive Mel Velarde to manage the operations. Now Sky’s vice-president and General Manager, in his late-twenties, boyish-looking Velarde, with his Jesuit arts-and-letters back-ground (and Opus Dei he’s quick to add) may not look the part of media-maker but looks deceive.
He reminisces over the still-recent Sky beginnings. “The hardest part —my numero uno problem — in setting up Sky was producing a comprehensive 10-year business plan which justified the project’s profitability…worse was to establish and operate it all within six months! We needed P300 million for capital, and investors, partners, and shareholders had to be convinced that they would be happy.”
Building Sky from scratch was a logistical nightmare, but that didn’t faze the guy. “It is every man’s dream to setup as a huge corporation,” he beams, “and mine was to make Sky work.”
“In the first one-and-a-half years, we were putting 16 days a week for Sky” — perhaps exaggerating a bit there, now he has tapered his work to ten hours a day, seven days a week) — “I studied engineering just to understand the technology, know the best systems available, and make sure foreigners were n’ot selling me old technology. You don’t realize just how many people out there are trying to dump their old stuff!
“I surrounded myself with engineers and marketing people; they spent nights in my apartment, going over plans and diagrams. Then, we drank out…” SkyCable was his spouse and mistress, his love life.
To build his company, he canvasses engineering schools for the brightest students. “I was preparing an organization, and needed young people who would be eager and challenged to work.” He hired about a hundred to form the core of his cable corps, who now earn 10 to 20 times more than their batchmates.
He scoured the world to study cable television networks. Those of “Israel and the US interested me very much. A few years ago, Israel built an extensive and revolutionary cable system from scratch, with the best technology available. The US, on the other hand, evolved and developed to perfection their system over the decades. I patterned Sky Cable after the best of both.
“It wasn’t easy building Sky,” sighs Velarde. “I experienced bottlenecks from the National Power Corporation” — he wouldn’t say what exactly — “and the franchisers.”
But the setbacks were overcome. Equipment was bought, deals made, cables laid. Operations began in 1992. Now, Sky Cable boasts of being Asia’s best and first completely electronic cable network. “Our system beats Japan’s, Taiwan’s, and Hong Kong’s,” Velarde beams. “In fact, they come over here” — (arms and hands wave to emphasize the here) — “to study our set-up.”
After a year, Sky has a staff of 540, and a thousand strand-miles of cable criss-crossing Metro Manila (drawn out, that distance stretches from Manila to Ho Chi Minh City in Viet Nam), providing 40,000 homes with 54 to 55 channels.
“Everything exceeded our expectations. We targeted 12,000 users for the first year of operations; we reached that number in half the time, and went on to reach 20,000!”
But Sky can’t expand fast enough, and neighborhoods complain about not’ getting cable soon enough. “They’re too far from HeadEnd, our source of signal),” he sighs. “My engineers work hard to meet the demand, but the demand exceeds our capacities.”
For P3,500, homeowners can connect to SkyCable, and get access to 20 satellite feeds, and over 30 channels from the world over. “We spend 75 percent of gross income to buy program rights from abroad” (which ran to P50 million in 1992).
“We survey our subscribers about their preferences, and we try to deliver. So far, our best-selling channels are Videoke 17, entertainment LI-channel 18, sports 20, and classic movies 21. ESPN, and CNN are hot items, too.”
For a while, Sky had to discontinue with its ESPN transmission, disappointing subscribers (a lot of people subscribe Sky just for the sports news, says a Sky employee). “ESPN was becoming a bit unrealistic,” explains Velarde, “increasing rates without advance notice…first by 100 percent, then 300 percent. We didn’t want our subscribers to carry the increased costs, so we decided to take ESPN out. But we are renegotiating to bring it back.”
Some television material from abroad poses special problems, though, like “obscene” material. In the summer of 1992, portions of Sports Illustrated summer bikini special were edited out when outfits became too skimpy and provocative. “We must be self-regulating, do live censorships, and cut immoral stuff from our material. Certain sectors criticize us for doing this, but we stick to the principle of maintaining quality, wholesome programming.”
But what’s obscene to conservative Filipino standards may be acceptable in First World programming. French television commercials have no qualms about full-shot nudity, so long as it is “artfully rendered.” Then again, when Manoling Morato and Cardinal Sin sit at the sidelines, management can’t be too careful.
Last year, rumors circulated that Sky will soon offer a 24 hour x-rated channel for an extra fee. Access to the channel, dubbed Climax 69, was going to be restricted, though, and receivers were to come with a lock so kids can’t just switch on to it.
But asked about it, Velarde said, “No way, we had no such plans.”
This year Sky will be as busy as Easycall’s trunkline, even busier. For the rest of 1993, P100 million will be spent to add another 500 strand-miles in Metro Manila to accommodate the expansion into northern Quezon City. Then will come SkyDataBase, where subscribers can hook up to a central computer for information on weather, news, videogames, stock market updates, movie schedules, airline schedules. And coming soon will be a 24-hour HBO channel for round-the-clock movie fare.
“I want to make SkyCable a PI billion corporation by 1995,” Velarde says, crossing his heart. He’s serious enough about it to bet dinner — anytime, anywhere — on it. But if that dream comes true, it will place Sky at par with giants San Miguel and Ayala Corporations. Well, let dreams be dreamt, and hopes hoped, for the future is bright for Sky…and for now, the sky’s the limit.
