Jamaican Market mellows for HBO content

Mark Titus, Business Reporter

Flow Jamaica has tried different strategies to entice subscription to its HBO Caribbean package.

There was free viewing for eight weeks, then later, after the package was priced, its customers got another free weekend of content, and now the cable company is pushing a discounted introductory offer.

But Flow insists that none of this is due to lack of subscriber interest in paying big bucks for a service that was once part of an all-inclusive package.

Flow and other cable companies had for years been virtually giving away the content owned by Home Box Office Latin American Group (HBO-LAG).

cease and desist

A threat of legal action by the American company against three of the largest Jamaican cable operators - Flow, Telstar and Logic One - followed up by an order from Jamaican regulator, the Broadcasting Commission, to cease and desist from distributing the content until commercial arrangements were in place, finally ended that ride last year.

Now, a Flow customer who pays around J$2,600 for a mid-range news-movies-networks bundle that last year included HBO and Cinemax, must now pay up to J$950 more for the HBO/Cinemax bundle.

Under the arrangement with HBO-LAG, Flow and the other cable companies now earn an undisclosed percentage of the revenue from the subscription packages sold.

HBO-LAG has reserved the right to determine the retail cost of the channels, while the firms take care of marketing to customers.

Flow, a subsidiary of Columbus Communications and the holder of an exclusive national licence, has introduced a raft of promotional activities, which began with an extended complimentary viewing of the new premium packages to the end of February, one month beyond the cut-off point.

The first eight weeks of free viewing were offered by the content providers during the Christmas season, as it sought to appease the viewing public for removing the contentious channels, even as they negotiated the distribution rights of the three companies.

Now, almost five months after the much-celebrated launch of HBO Caribbean, Flow has chopped the price of signing up for one of its premium packages with "a special 50 per cent off HBO" promotion, which will end on July 31.

But Flow's Marketing Manager, Sharon Roper, is playing down suggestions that the ongoing promotions are as a result of a less-than-impressive take up of the new premium channels.

"No, not at all, the response has been excellent," she told Sunday Business.

"Our customers have been calling in expressing satisfaction with the choices and content." Roper was unwilling to say whether there were more customers on Flow's books for HBO now than before, and declined comment on the level of patronage.

"We don't divulge our numbers publicly," she said.

The new suite of premium programmes includes

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