SkyCable, the country's leading cable TV service provider, is seeing an uptick in prepaid and postpaid subscribers to pay-per-view (PPV) events with the launch of the Basketball TV cable channel and upcoming events such as the Manny Pacquiao-Oscar de la Hoya fight.

Rodrigo Montinola, SkyCable vice-president for marketing, said the installation of digital boxes in select Metro Manila areas has allowed consumers who do not have cable TV to watch it during weekends. He said prepaid subscribers can get cable for three days (P90), 15 days (P380) and 30 days (P680).

"We're positioning the prepaid cards as an ideal weekend entertainment alternative to families. Instead of going out, families can just buy the prepaid cards and just watch the movies and all the other cable channels at home," he told abs-cbnNEWS.com.

He said the introduction of the Basketball TV channel also allows existing SkyCable postpaid subscribers to watch all the NBA, PBA, PBL and PCC games in just one channel for only P100 a month.

Montinola said Basketball TV is currently offered in 10 to 15 percent of SkyCable's total franchise area in Metro Manila including parts of Manila, Quezon City, Pasay, Pasig and Mandaluyong. He said, however, that SkyCable is moving slowly on digital encryption of its cable signal because of the cost involved.

"There is a significant investment to encryption because when you encrypt an area, you have to give out free boxes to existing postpaid cable subscribers in the area. Without the boxes, they won't be able to get the cable signal anymore. The upside to that is you lessen piracy and you are able to sell prepaid," he said.

He said that while SkyCable has yet to offer pay-per-view for the upcoming Pacquiao fight, he says as many as 3,000 subscribers have watched previous Pacquiao's fights on SkyCable PPV.

"Mas malaki pa rin ang market sa ganyang events sa postpaid subscribers. [The bigger market for these events are the postpaid subscribers.] The postpaid subscribers don't mind paying P1000 to P1,500 to watch the Pacquiao fight in the comfort of their homes. Of course, this is also offered to prepaid subscribers," he said.