In one of the best kept secrets since Clark Kent’s secret identity, cable provider SkyCable can be treating its thousands of subscribers to a surprises that none of them are expecting. The prank’s magnitude is so vast that it’s going to be akin to a grand April Fools’ Day joke. The only difference is that a) it’s not funny and b) it’s never a good thing to start the year on a sour note.
Starting January 1, 2008, SkyCable will no longer carry BTV, Solar Sports, ETC, 2nd Avenue, Crime/Suspense and JackTV. Yes. Isn’t it crazy that with just less than a month to go before a drastic change in their channel roster, a lot of people are still in the dark regarding this inevitability?
Let’s put this into perspective. Clearly, people (like me) who are basketball crazy would lose their minds on the prospect of not having Basketball TV. BTV shows NBA games on a daily basis. No matter what time of day it is, you will see something basketball-related.
If you’re into pro-boxing, billiards or other sports, not having Solar Sports would be disastrous. Solar Sports holds the exclusive rights in showing all of Manny Pacquiao’s matches and they have also recently won the right to show the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and 2012 London Summer Games. Could you imagine watching these events on Youtube due to the lack other networks that would be allowed to legally show them.
Without ETC and 2nd Ave, one wouldn’t be able to watch the latest episodes of Conan, Leno and the various hit series and reality shows that both channels carry. Crime/Suspense was the first channel to bring breakthrough series like Heroes, Prisonbreak and THE SOPRANOS (!) to Philippine TV and with efforts to synchronize the programming schedule (i.e. watching the same episodes being shown in the US), the potential of this relatively young channel is looking up.
JackTV features a lot of quality programming too. This was the channel that was brave enough to show South Park, Family Guy and American Dad to a very conservative viewers base.
Imagine losing all those channels in one fell swoop. If your imagination isn’t that good, you don’t really have to think that hard. You’ll be experiencing it if you survive the New Year’s Eve merriment.
As for Skycable’s side of the issue, they said this:
This new channel line-up was developed as a result of consumer feedback, ratings and commercial consideration, and designed to ultimately benefit SkyCable subscribers. With the entry of these new channels in January 2008, SkyCable will no longer carry the following channels: Basketball TV, Solar Sports, Jack TV, ETC, 2nd Avenue, and Crime/Suspense.
I have no idea if there are actual idiots who would petition to remove the Solar channels from the roster and the internet has been a breeding ground for a lot of hypothesis-generating and conspiracy theories regarding the reason for Skycable’s bonehead decision (the Pacquiao issue being the most popular angle), but it’s really immaterial and moot at this point. The bottom line is that you’ll be saying goodbye to a lot of shows.
If you’ve seen new channels on Sky lately, congratulations, you have now been acquainted to the “substitute” channels that Sky will push for after Solar shifts out. Enjoy watching cricket on Balls, I Want To Be A Hilton on Velvet and a host of other shows we all love on Maxxx. Ok, that just about fulfills my sarcasm quota for the next two weeks.
So if you’re a Skycable subscriber, it’s time to take action! Move out and send a strong message to the management of Skycable!
Other people have spoken up (will be regularly updated):
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SKY Cable was our very first ever cable TV provider since we subscribed to cable TV. bilang lang sa daliri ng kamay ang mga channels na may silbi. karamihan, speking in tongues na hindi ko maintindihan. tapos in a span of a few months, yung mga bilang na channels na napapakinabangan ko, unti-unti rin nilang inalis. bwisit talaga yang SKY Cable na yan. buti umusbong ang iba’t-ibang cable TV providers. pili ka na lang ng iba.
ayun, nag-eenjoy na ako ngayon sa free TV.
kakarmahin din kayo skycable.
That blows big time. I’ve heard of this a week ago and I’ve already thought about moving. Though I’m not aware of other cable providers here in Davao.
Apparently, skycable isn’t renewing solar entertainment’s contract because it’ll be coming up with channels similar to what Solar has been airing.
http://www.thedigitalpinoy.com/thread/4/1853
Fuck SkyCable. Where am I supposed to get my daily NBA fix now? X-(
But those channels naman will be available in free TV (SBN 21 and Channel 29.) Well, 2nd Avenue, Jack TV and ETC yung sure though.
Skycable is threatened by the soaring viewers of Solar channels against their owned channels like Lifestyle network, etc. That’s the reason why they removed Solar in their lineups. If solar channels will transfer to free TV, then that will be great!
Huwat?! No more ETC, 2nd Avenue and Jack? That’s a disaster. They don’t even have Channel V which is making things worse.
Bleh bleh bleh. As a devout member of the Association of the Poorest Bloggers in the Philippines, I sincerely express my deepest insecurity to all of you for having a cable TV subscription which I never had for the last nineteen years of my entire chicken life.
And here you are, complaining for the channel deduction. I so wanna kill myself now.
[slashes wrist]
Of course, I’m kidding.
Cable TV? What’s that? Is that like YouTube? (Hehehehehe.)
We’ve never been on SkyCable and have been on our local Las Pinas Cable TV ever since. They have all of the Solar channels and we like it.
Did that – spammed SkyCable during the Star Sports exodus of 2002. Screw them.
Anyway, I suppose Balls would carry the French Open and US Open? If that’s the case, then no complaints from me. Hahaha.
aajao: That’s rough. I can’t live on free tv. Hehe
Drew: I sure hope you have choices there. I’m trying to avail of Destiny. The trade off is that I won’t get to have AXN.
Jaywalker: Well, they did that so justify removing Solar. They did that to maintain the illusion of the added value of Sky.
ronnie: You’ll probably get what you want. Lucky bastard. hehe
awww, I love Jack TV. Skycable affiliates (cable companies outside MM) are also affected. That means I’ll rely on Smart’s myTV just to watch Jack TV, ETC and BTV. Damn! Screw them!
This new channel line-up was developed as a result of consumer feedback, ratings and commercial consideration, and designed to ultimately benefit SkyCable subscribers.
FTFY
urgh…
damnable HTML
What I meant was….
This new channel line-up was developed as a result of consumer feedback, ratings and commercial consideration, and designed to ultimately benefit SkyCable
FTFY
Sorry for the spammage Doc Benj
im definitely moving to another cable provider..
1st..sky have put a cable box that would only allow one tv to have cable channels(we’ve got 4 and they’re now all useless, can only watch free tv), our honor to be the first area to go with that setup.
2nd..they’re f*ckin gonna remove solar sports, which is the only reason i’m stickin with sky for the past year..hell yeah..im gonna switch provider now..die sky,,die!!!
i’m on destiny now. too many channels missing, but at least i don’t pay as much as skycable’s fees. 500 lang singil ng destiny. i’m still looking into getting a mydream subscription.
Skycable made my recorder practically obsolete with their Digibox.
You can’t record something your Digibox isn’t tuned to. So you can’t watch something else while recording a particular show.
The closest next to Skycable with as much programming is Dream. Global Destiny is a very far third. Lucky for those outside the heart of the Metropolis. Your Programming seems to be better than ours here.
Imho, I still like Global Destiny’s channel more than Dream’s, although the plus point with Dream is that portable(?) siya since satellite siya. The thing is, Dream has Star Movies Mandarin, which Destiny carried for a long time before it got cut some years back. Sayang…
Speaking of Dream, it also had problems with the Lopez’s free tv stations last year. I was surfing through my friend’s Dream and had two channels showing nothing when the tv guide said ABS and Studio 23.
[...] it on their site. People will find out, as some people on the Internet have also blogged about it here and [...]
Etoh ang sinabi ko sa SkyCable Ka ng Ina mo:
WTF.
I am honestly contemplating switching to Destiny. I mean, yung rate nila is P450 a month kompara sa SkyCable na P870 a month tapos kulang kulang pa yung channel.
At eto pa a, babalik raw ang StarTV sa Destiny ayon sa Wikipedia. Kung ganon nga, LIPAT NA TAYO.
@jp
may Star Movies Mandarin pa rin ba ang Dream, alam ko wala na eh, sa Metro Manila, SkyCable na lang meron nun at premium pa. Pag bumalik sa Destiny yun, tapos hindi sya premium, switch na ako, sobrang mahal ng SkyCable namin plus yung Star Chinese Movies na premium channel nga.
Fruck!!! Walang Solar Sports?!! Walang free UFC events?!! Ano yun?!! So last UFC event na mapapanood ko is yung fight ni Liddell vs Silva… Damn… Pano na to? Subscribe sa isa pang cable provider?
Try Emailing Them..
You may contact SkyCable in 3 easy ways
By phone: 24×7 customer hotline 631-0000
By fax: 635-6406
By email:
For EXISTING SUBSCRIBERS: callcenter@skycable.com
c pacquiao kasi eh..boo balls! go btv!
no more UFC or Boxing??????
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*unsubscribes*
this is a very stupid idea………doesnt skycable know that the channels that solar offer are the channels that are good??? i dont like watching basketball in other channels besides basketball tv and heroes in crime and suspense
AND THERE TAKING AWAY JACK TV!!! NOW THAT IS STUPID…. just when they were to return pay per view events of the wwe back
lang hiya anung klaseng pangalan ba un?? “balls?” “velvet”
“maxxx” lang hiya……..d nmn ako makalipat ng cable ayaw ng paraents ko(yes teenager lang ako)
kaasar
ang Bottomline eto lang:
SKY CABLE managmeent = Mukang Pera!
For almost 6 years ako loyal sa Sky, lagi nasa oras magbayad! tapos eto pa ang gagawin nila! Solar channels lang ang OK sa kanila! kapal ng muka!
Mga hayop kayo!
ETO ANG ISA SA MAY PAKANA NG PAGTANGGAL NG SOLAR CHANNELS
Juno L. Henares-Chuidian
Vice President of Programming
SKY CABLE
GREEDY sa pera! dalhin mo sa impyero ang kayamanan mo! hay up!
BOTTOMLINE:
SKY CABLE MANAGEMENT = MUKANG PERA!
We have been a loyal subscriber of sky for almost 6 years. We pay on time since day 1, we endure their almost yearly increase, AND THIS IS WHAT WE GET FROM THEM?
ETO ang isa sa may pakana ng lahat:
Juno L. Henares-Chuidian
Vice President of Programming
SKY CABLE
Napaka takaw sa pera! Full of greed!
im not used in cursing people but I WISH ALL THE BAD LUCK FOR SKY CABLE in the year 2008!!
MAlasin sana kayo sky cable company for 2008
MAMATAY NA KAYO SKY!!! ASAN NA JACK TV KO!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA….
JACKTV IS GONE?!?!?! NO FREAKING WAY. That’s like the only channel I watch every single day!! This sucks!! ETC and 2nd Avenue pa! God, this is BS. My parents hate it too, we’re considering on switching providers na din. :\ hay. This is why we can’t have nice things, Skycable! Fire whoever suggested your stupid bullcrap new channel lineup!
You should go easy with the anger. If you were on Global Destiny mas nalugi ka with the switch of Solar Channels to Free TV. Imagine ganun pa rin ang bayad namin at ang nadagdag lang na channel sa amin a 1 = Basketball Tv pero ang nalibre nila ay 3 (C/S, ETC, 2nd Avenue). At least may kapalit kayong nakuha kami olats.
To repeat, wala ang mga sumusunod na channel sa Global Destiny:
Star World
Star Movies
National Geographic
AXN
A1
kung isasama mo pa yung Sky Exclusive Channels good luck na lang talaga.
OO nga pala pagnagbayad sa Global Destiny wala ng refund pag di ka happy. Di rin 24 hours ang customer service nila. Also you have to memorize the number of the service area representative pag may problem, inutil ang main hotline nila irefer ka dun
damn nman…mamimiss ko c lebron james nyan! waaahhhhhH! iyak nko!!!
Jake,
Put it this way:
IMHO Solar Channels > All exclusive Sky Channels. I’m sure countless others here agree.
The Lopez family who owns ABS-CBN who happens to be the owner of SKYCABLE was threatend by the rating issue thats why they removed those said channels. Unconfirmed reports also said that the conflict between solar sports in and the lopez’s is one of the reason. look we dont care about the conflicts of those companies all we want is BRING BACK BASKETBALL TV AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BECAUSE IAM TELLING YOU (SKYCABLE OWNERS,EMPLOYEES) on day you might regret that you removed those channel! By the way theres a lot of better cable tv providers that offer those channels. guys what do you think?
Putang ina naman btv na nga lang pinapanood ko sa tv nawala pa ang hayop. . . puta kayo mga sky people. . .
Mag global Destiny cable na lng tayo..wala na tayong magagawa jan..kung ayaw niong mag-shift ng cable magtiis kayo sa balls,velvet,maxxx sucks…tang ina di ko yata kaya yun…. makarma sana kayo
This new channel line-up was developed as a result of consumer feedback, ratings and commercial consideration, and designed to ultimately benefit SkyCable subscribers.
ARE THEY HIGH???? what the f.ck are they talking about!?!
what consumer feedback? that’s not what we want…. we want our btv, jacktv and our solar sports… so that means “SKYCABLE IS A DUMBASS”
waah!! bakit sa amin home cable ala na din ganyan!! amf sky cable damay damay!! bwakanang ina nio!!!
putang na !!! panu n ko nunuod ng WWE lecheng yan!!
Balls is a detrimental replacement for Btv. It airs golf tournaments, professional football and other sports oblivious to the Filipino male. NBA games? zero. byebye fantasyhoops.
Skycable is nothing without JACKTV and other solar channels!!!
what about all the wrestling fans that watch WWE? They replaced it with Maxxx’s WWE 24/7?? this show only gives you flashbacks of old school matches, what about the current events on WWE??
JACKTV = super quality programming
ano banaman ito pinag palit ang JACK TV sa MAXX -_- jackTV=100% MAXX TV 10% lang BORING MANHID ANG SKY CABLE BY THE END OF THE MONTH PAPALIT NA AKO NG CABLE COMPANY
@ JAKE
JACK IS BETTER THAN STAR WORLD
JACK IS BETTER THAN STAR MOVIES PIRATED DVD LANG SAGOT DYAN
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PABALIK BALIK
AXN SAME
A1 YAWN**
SKY SUCKS bat pa kc tinangal ang mga magagandang channel BORING NA ANG TV SA BAHAY USELESS ANG CABLE di ko na avail gustong channel ko. parang nanunuod ako ng regular TV
SKY CABLE MARAMING NONSENSE CHANNEL SANA UN ANG TINANGAL
GUD LUCK SKY CABLE ..I.. ..I..
im from davao…..fuck shycable!!! put btv & solar sports back!!!!
dapat ibalik ang jack tv because I’m an avid fan of WWE, and btv kelangan ibalik din bcoz i love NBA,although may NBA games sa free tv pero mas maganda kung ibalik dba… ung ETC nsa free tv na pero ang pangit ng reception kumpara sa dati… cge ganito na lang ibalik na lang nila ang JackTv khit hindi na yung iba, PLease parang awa nyo na Sky management……..
we hav 2 giv benefit of a doubt to sky management, Y? kc ganito ang tingin ko dyan, alam naman natin ang NBA games napapalabas na sa free tv un nga lang hindi araw araw di tulad ng BTv, tpos ang WWE gnun din, un nga lang medyo late ng konti lyk one wik or 2 wiks di tulad sa Jack TV recent ung pinalalabas ska nirereplay araw araw di tulad sa freeTv every wik ends lng ata, honestly for me I lyk watching the even the replays of WWE raw and smackdown during wik days. the point is because of the shows I said are now airing on free Tv, maybe Solar are now asking for a higher fee to Sky for their channels, which I think the Sky turn down their offer bcoz of the free TV. Well, if I’m Sky sana tinangap na lang nila ung increased fee ng Solar tpos dagdagan na lang nila ung monthly fee ng subscribers,100 to 150 pesos would be fine, kesa wala na ung mga channels na pinapanuod madalas ng maga tao dba…
FUCK SKY CABLE! LILIPAT NA KO SA DESTINY OR GLOBAL! HALF THE PRICE! FUCK YOU LOPEZES!
Kainis sayang sayang and MAD Tv…Yun pa naman ang the best comedy sketch..huhuhuhuhu South Park! American Dad! Family Guy! Bye bye huhuhuhuhuhu
Here’s what I know.
I’ve heard it straight from Wilson Cheng (Solar owner).
Years ago, when Sky Cable was in a slump, they asked Wilson for help. Wilson gave them Basketball TV and made it exclusive to Sky to help pick up their ratings.
And now, Sky did this to Solar. They didn’t renew Solar’s contract, but they created channels EXACTLY like the ones they canceled. I knew about this around September pa, because one of ABSCBN’s marketing heads mentioned this to me.
Kupal lang talaga ang ABSCBN. I even know that their people went to the States to try and secure a contract with WWE. Pero syempre, ang Amerikano, may existing contract with Solar and takot ang mga yan sa demanda, so pinagtawanan lang daw nila ang mga taga-ABSCBN. So, yang WWE24/7 lang ang nakuha nila.
ABSCBN sucks big time. I think they’re greedy assholes who deserve what’s coming to them. With all these controversies around them (Willie Revillame cheating rehearsal video on YouTube, Nielsen rating scandal etc), I hope their company folds.
Yo, ABSCBN: You are not giving the people what they want. You’re not even giving people a choice. Sky Cable is turning out to be nothing but one big version of Channel 2 (Have you seen their shows? They’re all idiotic.)
I’m sure Wilson Cheng is no saint either. But at least his company has better taste. Entertainment in the Philippines is in the toilet, thanks to local network corporations (especially ABSCBN).
Oh, one more thing. Yo, ABSCBN: Fuck you.
i left them a freaking hate mail just now. im totally pissed off on how sky cable handled this. this is not a good year skycable, screwing your viewing public after new year doesn’t exactly keep us happy you money hungry a**holes!
dang.
Sabi ni skycable rep namin, may alternative pa naman daw kahit wala nang NBA, manood na lang daw ako ng PBA at MBA…LMAO. E yun kayang WWE, ano ang alternative, Pinoy Wrestling!!!
DAMMIT! this is not fair… SKYCABLE is BS!!….. they are robbing us in the daylight….. paying heavy monthly bills with this lousy channels….. i cant do antything we live in the province and there is no alternative cable provider in our area except another smalltime cable provider but doesnt even have any NBA daily games….. F%@! …. then i went to SKYCABLE office all they say is sorry we cant do anything!!!!…
i am paying skycable just to watch nba, then they’ll just cut it off!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
If skycable won’t get those channel rosters again…
They should be out in their industry!!!!!!
SKYCABLE = B—S–T!!!!!!
SKYCABLE = B – L – S – - T
you guys should try paranaque cable. we dont have basketball tv but we have access to basketball everyday (with U.S. commercials) thru fsn and fox. we only get to see one game a day but you can watch the highlights on espn and star sports every night. and we get to keep jack, axn, star sports and all those other good channels.. except animax and nickelodeon (nooo spongebobb)
Yeah! Fuck them! Now I dont have any chance to watch Project Runway anymore!!!!
Fuck sky cable. Alam ko yung owner. Friend ng nanay ko. At mamaya sasabihin sakanya na ang baboy amg internet at mga panget sila. Walang utak.