Jean McPherson, director of marketing, Flow Communications. - Contributed

Stephen Chung has sold out his cable company, one of Kingston's largest, to big rival, Flow Jamaica, the parties announced jointly Friday.

Entertainment Systems Limited (ESL) is Flow's eighth purchase under a plan to lock up the cable market via acquisition of multiple small operators.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Flow said the acquisition covered ESL's "cable distribution and internet/telecom assets", which Chung had built out over 12 years.

At mid-afternoon Friday, staff at ESL's offices at Old Hope Road in St Andrew said the procedural switches were still under way, having been advised of the ownership change that morning.

Flow, which up to this week employed some 560 persons, said the ESL staff would have a place in the organisation.

Entertainment Systems offers service to some 13 communities in Kingston, including some of the most affluent neighbourhoods - Mona, Beverley Hills, Hope Pastures, Barbican, Constant Spring, Norbrook, Half-Way Tree, Trafalgar Park, New Kingston, Hope Tavern, August Town, Cherry Gardens, and Stony Hill.

Flow's network is already deployed in some of those areas. For those that are not, the company said the switch of ESL clients should be wrapped up by mid-2008, giving them access to its triple-play digital cable, Internet and phone services.

Flow's most basic service is a $750- per-month cable-only package, but its prices range up to $7,900 on special bundles.

comparison of prices

ESL's basic fee was approximately $2,000 for 100-plus channels.

Chung just recently completed the refurbishing of his business, including new trucks and equipment, which was seen as his way of digging in to resist a takeover by Flow, the brand under which Bahamas-based Columbus Communications operates. Columbus' operations are deployed in 21 Caribbean markets.

Sunday Business also understands that Chung had been in talks with the Darbys of Telstar Cable on a possible merger of their operations.

But on Friday, Chung said the decision to sell was best for the company and its clients.

"Our customers will now have access to a state-of-the-art, first-world network and a triple-play of digital cable, high-speed Internet and land-line services while our employees will benefit from Flow's extensive training programmes," he said, quoted in the release announ-cing the deal.

Flow is working with a 2010-2011 timetable to fully build out its network islandwide.

Columbus, up to last year, had pumped $14 billion into the deployment of its services and to buy up rivals, and will be spending another $5 billion to $7 billion per year to complete the process.

That level of investment has seen the company swiftly emerge as the dominant market player.

Currently, it only has a presence in six of 14 parishes.

Flow's licence requires it to report to the Broadcasting Commission on a quarterly basis on a range of deliverables, including its mandated roll-out of services to all parishes.

business@gleanerjm.com