Lopez-led SkyCable Corp. announced Tuesday that it will be providing two high-definition (HD) channels to its cable subscribers in Metro Manila.

In a press briefing, SkyCable Vice President for Marketing Rodrigo Montinola said the company spent P6 billion for the History HD and Discovery HD channels.

He said it would take 2,000 subscriptions before SkyCable can recoup its investment, which includes decoders, a device to receive the signals of the HD channels, and transmission equipment.

Subscribers with HD-compatible television sets can avail of the two new channels for P499 a month, with a one-time installation fee of P5,000.

Not all Filipinos own HDTVs, making SkyCable's new service limited to the country's affluent market, or about 5 percent of the population. "It is not a huge market in terms of volume, and we know that not everyone can purchase HDTV sets. That is why we may offer promos to entice buyers," Montinola explained.

Still, the cable firm said it is looking at more HD channel offerings in the future. "We are also looking at offering sports events or shows via HD. What we could do is maybe offer it on a pay per view basis and not on subscription," Montinola said.

Meanwhile, SkyCable said it will launch SkyCable Select next week, which allows customers to subscribe to up to 20 channels of his choice for P280 a month. The company is also set to offer SkyCable Video-on-Demand in the near future.

abs-cbnNEWS.com is the online news department of ABS-CBN Interactive Inc., a subsidiary of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. ABS-CBN and SkyCable Corp. are both part of the Lopez Group of Companies.