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Sky Direct (stylized as SKYdirect) is a direct-broadcast satellite subscription television service in the Philippines.
From its founding in 2016, it was owned and operated by Sky Cable Corporation, a subsidiary of ABS-CBN Corporation. Sky Cable had been eyeing for a DBS service and considered on acquiring Dream Satellite TV from Antonio O. Cojuangco, Jr. The acquisition of Dream was reported to have reached an advanced stage but for some undisclosed reasons, the deal was not sealed. Sky's entry to the DBS market was hindered by various oppositions from the industry, citing legal issues and the slow growth of the pay TV market in the country. On December 23, 2015, Sky was granted by the NTC a provisional authority to operate and maintain a DBS service in 251 cities and municipalities in the country for a period of 18 months. Sky Direct offered both prepaid and postpaid packages with exclusive channels from ABS-CBN and Creative Programs. As of March 2019, Sky Direct had over 1 million subscribers.
Sky Direct was shut down on June 30, 2020 after an alias cease-and-desist order by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). In 2025, the ownership, management and operations of Sky Direct are now under Reliance Broadcasting Unlimited, an affiliate of telecommunications firm Converge ICT under brand license agreement with Sky Cable Corporation.
In January 2016, Sky Direct began the trial period for its prepaid service in three areas through authorized dealers in Metro Manila, province of Cavite and Quezon.
Sky Direct had a soft launching on March 18, 2016, by releasing the television commercial advertisement with endorser Kris Aquino.
The Sky Direct prepaid subscription package includes a satellite dish antenna, set top box (Integrated Receiver-Decoder) and remote control. Sky Direct uses the DVB-S2 digital television broadcast standard in the Ku band to provide standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) TV broadcasts. For the conditional access, it uses the Verimatrix encryption system to scramble the data and protect its content from signal piracy.
On May 24, 2016, Luxembourg-based satellite owner SES announced a multi-year, multi-transponder capacity agreement with Sky Cable, Sky Direct's parent, to broadcast DTH television channels via the SES-9 and New Skies NSS-11 satellites at 108.2 degrees East. SES-9 is expected to be operational middle of 2016.
Sky Direct is expected to relaunch by 2025 under RBU/Converge ownership and operations. This comes after Sky and Converge forged their memorandum of agreement in July 2024 allowing Converge to utilize Sky's fiber internet infrastructure and other businesses.
Since its reactivation in February 2025, Sky Direct is currently test broadcasting on JCSAT-4B satellite transponder.
| JCSAT-4B | Ku Band | 124.0° East | 11595 & 11625 MHz | Vertical (V) | 22415 | StreamGuard | DVB-S2 MPEG-4 | Test broadcast | Philippines |
In February 2016, TV5 Network, Inc formally filed a motion for reconsideration with the NTC asking the regulator to dismiss Sky Cable's application to offer DBS and reverse its order from December 2015 that allowed Sky Cable to offer both wired and wireless cable network services nationwide. TV5 argued that DBS or wireless cable service is beyond the scope of Sky Cable’s franchise and articles of incorporation. According to TV5, Sky Cable's amended articles of incorporation states that it can establish and operate a cable television which is wired in nature and not a wireless service like DBS. The regulator emphasized in its December 2015 order that DBS service is within the scope of Sky Cable's congressional franchise.
On June 29, during the joint hearing by the House Franchises and Good Government committee, regarding on their operations of ABS-CBN TV Plus, Sky Direct and its blocktime deal with AMCARA Broadcasting Network, the Federation of International Cable TV and Telecommunications Association of the Philippines (FICTAP), National Chairperson Estrellita Juliano Tamano has urged the to stop their operations, because of their expired franchise. After that, Telecommunications Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba announced that Sky Direct will cease operations, despite their objections made by Rodante Marcoleta, which he asked him to resign as commissioner and Boying Remulla's threat to face graft charges before the Ombudsman against him.
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