By Germaine Smith, Staff ReporterTHE CABLE television industry in Jamaica has seen several changes and has travelled a rocky road to its current position. It has inched from the state of wild, unregulated days to being a more controlled and regulated business, with the Government wielding tremendous control over it.
The industry has, first of all, lost several unofficial cable providers, as now only those with licences are allowed to operate. Secondly, with increased pressure from the Broadcasting Commission for them to adhere to the Children's Code for Programming, things have changed. One of these recent changes, which has been steadily taking effect, is the introduction of the set-top boxes (popularly called cable boxes).
SHIFT
According to the Broadcasting Commission, the shift to begin using the boxes began in 1998. These boxes are the tiny instruments rented by the cable subscriber which are connected to the television set and the provider's incoming service. Using them, subscribers can programme which channels they receive, rather than allowing an unregulated cable feed to run into the household.
At least one cable company offered the cable box service from as long as three years ago, but more have been joining the line, especially since the Government's implementation of the Children's Code For Programming in January 2003.
To this end, several subscribers islandwide have been quietly watching as their favourite channels disappear one after the other. In May of this year, the Commission issued guidelines to the companies about how they should go about the service. Since then, the numbers of companies scrambling channels has steadily grown.
Among the recommendations were for the providers to offer along with the set-top boxes:
1. Information on the terms and conditions for use of the set-top boxes;
2. Operational instructions for the device.
3. Basic information on the voltage supply required.
4. Safety warnings associated with the equipment.
5. Basic care and maintenance procedures for the device, including related services by the operator.
6. A remote control where this is required for use with the set top box.
7. The cost implications of the boxes.
8. Any other relevant information which is necessary to effect the smooth changeover to set-top boxes, as well as their operation.
Based on recent feedback from a few of the cable providers, it seems that compliance among their subscribers has been steady in some instances, but there have been cases where customers hated the idea of their channels being scrambled and are resisting the changes.
SET-TOP BOXES
Allied Cablevision Company knows this story, because they experienced it three years ago when they started to introduce the set-top boxes while scrambling some channels.
A senior director, though declining to be named, told The Sunday Gleaner that initially they lost some business when they started scrambling, as customers were not fully aware of the purpose.
"Allied had already started this initiative some years ago. Because of the newness of it at the time, we lost some customers in the beginning," he stated. "A lot of this has to do with how you educate the customers and how you put it across to them. They must understand the reason for doing this or they will resist," he continued.
To this end, their subscribers have eventually 'logged on' to the practice, so today it is nothing new to them. "Our boxes have been fully entrenched in our customers' culture for quite a while now. This has been something we started two to three years ago so they have caught on already."
Representatives of Omni Cable Services Ltd. told The Sunday Gleaner a different story. Deannia McPherson said the boxes were "going like hot bread".
"The demand has been very great, even though we started scrambling from last December with the movie channels," she said.
"We are supposed to be doing all the channels, but we want them (customers) to come in gradually... Some people have been complaining that we have taken away their channels but for the most part others have been buying their boxes", she said.
Managing director of Entertainment Systems, Stephen Chung, told The Sunday Gleaner that he has not faced resistance yet. "I wouldn't say there has been resistance; what we have been doing is turning off the channels on a phased basis... We have not had any problems so far, because we had carefully planned this. That's why we did it on a phased basis. We gave adequate notice so that we did not have a rush to get boxes, but rather a steady flow," he said.
Entertainment Systems, he added, started the scrambling process one year ago and has been moving fairly slowly with it.
"To date we have done less then 15 channels. "When we find that most people have a box, we will scramble them a lot faster."
"People have begun to see the need for it, because we have a lot of content not suited for children and these boxes will offer control for the parents. People have begun to understand so they are coming in to buy the boxes."
A DIFFERENT PICTURE
Portmore and some sections of St Catherine, however, show a different picture than Kingston and St. Andrew, as some subscribers have continued to enjoy all of their channels.
A senior manager at the Jamaica Amalgamated Cable System Ltd. (JACS), said they have not yet started to scramble channels, but that will start soon. "We have plans to start, but we have not yet officially begun to scramble them," she said. "I suppose by sometime next year we should be on stream with it, but up to this point we have not yet started."
Despite this, the Commission has been watching the process and has given them a cautious thumbs-up so far. "Initiatives by cable companies that support their required compliance with the Children's Code For Programming are of course welcomed by the Commission," it said in a statement.
