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"We need to show a lot more compliance" - Garfield Sinclair

Garfield Sinclair, speaking with host Dionne Jackson Miller on RJR's Beyond the Headlines, on Friday, April 24, 2015

In the wake of Jamaica's Broadcasting Commission's crackdown on unauthorized showing of foreign content on local cable channels, Garfield Sinclair, CEO of LIME/Flow, has acknowledged that his and other companies have been in breach, but has vowed to correct the situation.

"In an evolving digital age, we're going to have to regularize our content and show a lot more compliance, going forward, as the Caribbean becomes more and more prominent on the radar screens of a lot of these content providers," he said on RJR's Beyond the Headlines on Friday.

Subscribers to cable television in Jamaica will see their viewing options reduced by the end of next month, with the Broadcasting Commission announcing on Friday that it had ordered the removal of 19 channels, due to copyright breaches. 

The channels to be removed, in the first instance, are Encore Black, Showtime East, Encore Family, Showtime West, Encore Love, Showtime TOO, Encore Suspense, Showtime 2, Encore WAM, Showtime Showcase, Encore Classic, Starz Comedy, Encore Drama, Starz West, Encore Mystery, Starz Kids & Family, Encore Movie Plex, Starz Multiplex, and The Movie Channel Xtra

Cordel Green, Executive Director of  the Commission, also speaking on Beyond the Headlines, said the action being taken was in an effort to regularize access to these channels and ensure that "Jamaica's reputation is not sullied."

It was, he said, "the natural outcome of a process, which began with a comprehensive copyright audit."

Furthermore, he said, there were some rights holders "who are becoming far more aggressive in protecting their content."

Regularization will entail "having contractual agreements in place for all of the content that we provide," according to Sinclair.

Explaining the rationale for the first 19 channels selected for removal from local screens, he said they were not among the most popular with Jamaican viewers.

The process was being approached “in a very systematic way, hopefully in a way that will lead to the least disruption of customer viewing habits, even as we continue to negotiate contracts and authorized channels with contract providers to replace the ones that are being lost now.”

 

Please click on the audio icon above to access the interview on Beyond the Headlines.

 

 

 

 

 



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