{"id":75554,"date":"2015-04-29T09:04:47","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T14:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=75554"},"modified":"2017-04-07T20:11:22","modified_gmt":"2017-04-08T01:11:22","slug":"early-thoughts-loss-tv-channels-caribbean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2015\/04\/early-thoughts-loss-tv-channels-caribbean\/","title":{"rendered":"Early thoughts: the loss of US TV channels in Caribbean"},"content":{"rendered":"
The lack of licensing and distribution rights for some TV channels aired in the Caribbean means they cannot be accessed in the region. Some of implications are discussed<\/em><\/p>\n Last week, the television (TV) watching public in Jamaica was caught off guard when the local media reported that 19 cable channels would be removed from subscribers\u2019 packages effective 31 May 2015 (Source: Jamaica Observer<\/a>). The channels, which include Encore, Showtime and Starz, among others, are allegedly being aired in Jamaica in breach of copyright, licensing and distribution rights of the content owners, who are based in the United States of America (USA). To that end, the local broadcasting regulator, the Broadcasting Commission, has issued a directive to 49 cable\/subscriber TV operators to remove the offending channels (Source: The Gleaner<\/a>).<\/p>\n The situation in which Jamaica finds itself is unlikely to be unique in the region. Caribbean countries that speak English tend to consume a lot of US content because:<\/p>\n From a licensing and distribution rights perspective, the Caribbean, and the English-speaking Caribbean in particular, is lumped with Latin America, which for the most part comprises Spanish-speaking countries. As a result, much of the content for the Latin American market is either in Spanish, or is closed captioned for a Spanish-speaking audience. Further, certain US programmes we enjoy might not be available for the Latin American market, and if they are, they are aired several weeks (or months) later. Hence we would no longer be current and would not be able to participate in the discussions going on around us, be they online or with family and friends overseas. Essentially, most of us identify more closely with the US than with Latin America.<\/p>\n However, we in the Caribbean cannot dictate which countries content owners permit or bar from viewing their content. Typically, programme authorisation is a commercial agreement between the content owners (or the international rights owners) and the local content providers. However, according to Jamaica\u2019s Broadcasting Commission:<\/p>\n\n