Prepaid service is widespread across the Caribbean, but until now, has been used almost exclusively in the mobile\/cellular space. Can it be used successfully for cable\/subscriber TV.<\/i><\/p>\n
Last month, Jamaica saw the launch of yet another cable\/subscriber TV operations. The Jamaican cable TV market is not necessarily saturated, as there are both major and parish-level operators, but neither is it a greenfield environment awash with opportunities. Generally, and across the country, customers already have (some) choice, and so new entrants to the cable\/subscriber TV market have to be savvy and innovative to disrupt the status quo.<\/span><\/p>\n ReadyTV, the newest cable\/subscriber TV provider in Jamaica, has a very ambitious plan. Currently, it is focussed on establishing a presence in a about six of Jamaica 14 parishes, with the intention of expanding its footprint islandwide in 2018. In a nutshell, the firm wants to target 500,000 households across Jamaica that have no\u00a0cable TV subscriptions, but more importantly, it will be offering prepaid packages for its cable\/subscriber TV services.<\/span><\/p>\n Prepaid packages are in no way new to the Caribbean. They are widely available and most popularly applied in the mobile\/\/cellular segment of the telecommunications market, where the introduction of affordable service and devices led to explosive growth across the region starting from the early 2000s. Currently, and in all Caribbean countries mobile\/cellular communication is the most ubiquitous medium, and this expected to continue into the foreseeable future.<\/span><\/p>\n It is thus somewhat surprising that a new firm (ReadyTV) has been prepared to invest solely in cable\/subscriber TV, in an age when services on mobile\/portable devices and multi-play service business models tend to be considered the most lucrative. Further, several <\/span>Internet trend reports<\/span><\/a> have noted that streaming video is, and will continue to be, big business. However, in countries, such as Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, where take-up of broadband Internet access is still quite low, building a cable\/subscriber TV customer base could be the foundation upon which other services, such as broadband Internet, are eventually provided.<\/span><\/p>\n Further, offering prepaid packages for cable\/subscriber TV service, is a shrewd move. In Jamaica, similar to virtually all other Caribbean countries, a considerable proportion of the customer base (at least 80%) tend to prefer prepaid services – when the option does exist. Some of the benefits of prepaid services include the fact that there is no contract, and so obligations in terms of a fixed monthly spend, and penalties for early termination of the contract, would not obtain. Second, subscribers pay only for what they are prepared to consume; hence if they require service for a day, a week or a month; or service with a specific cap (for example with respect to data or minutes), it means that they can better match the package(s) they select to their needs at any given point in time. Finally, prepaid packages offer customers better budgetary control. They pay upfront for the package they want, use it as they wish, and have no surprises at a later date by being saddled with a bill that they may not be able to afford.<\/span><\/p>\n In summary, and in offering prepaid cable\/subscriber TV packages, ReadyTV is positioning itself to cater to a segment of the Jamaican population that has not been the focus before. However, in a wider context, it must be highlighted that in other countries, and even among other segments of the Jamaican population, take-up of cable\/subscriber TV is on the decline, in favour of video streaming and Video-on-Demand. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Having said this, Jamaican still enjoy viewing local content, such as such as the morning progarmmes and the evening news, and so might still be prepared to have even the most basic\u00a0cable\/subscriber TV package. Further, with the still limited deployment of high-speed broadband Internet service islandwide, the wholesale substitution of the cable\/subscriber TV with Internet-based services may still be a few years away.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\nMerits of prepaid services in the Caribbean<\/span><\/h3>\n
Final thoughts…<\/span><\/h3>\n