NASSAU, BAHAMAS — A senior REV/Cable Bahamas executive said yesterday the company has invested at least $1 million in local content over the past two years, noting that it is also working to export local content.
Dave Burrows, Rev vice president, while addressing a media roundtable on regional distribution rights for television content yesterday, noted: “In the last two years, Cable Bahamas has invested at least $1 million in local content.
“We just launched our new season. We have 15 original series playing right now. There are 218 Bahamians involved in our season.
“That doesn’t include the news. Now, if we include the news and some of the programs we do on Cable Bahamas ourselves, we are close to some 300 different Bahamians being employed as a result of what we are doing on our TV platform in terms of expanding local programming.”
Burrows added: “We will be investing more in that. We are actually releasing a new channel, Go242, at the beginning of next month, which is Bahamian-focused.
“We would have launched, along with the Ministry of Education, the Bahamas Learning Channel.”
Burrows said Rev/Cable Bahamas is also leveraging relationships to begin exporting local content.
REV is currently engaged in a campaign entitled “Imagine” to invite customers and the general public to give their feedback on a proposed repackaging of REV TV and to join an even broader conversation about the future of television in The Bahamas.
M’khel Ferguson, REV product lead, said: “We took a closer look at the needs, wants and viewing patterns of our subscribers and came to the conclusion that it was time to repackage our TV offering.
“We are constantly seeking to offer our customers value for their money and we are confident that the new packages we have presented will offer users more control, easier access to premium content and ultimately equate to more savings, which benefits everyone.
“This public education campaign is the first step in making this repackaging a reality. We cannot make this happen without support from consumers, so we are inviting them to engage with us directly.”
The major tenets of the repackaging center around shifting from assorted packages to genre-based TV packages, reducing paywalls between consumers and premium content by shifting package requirements and moving premium content to introductory packages.
Public engagement on the matter is taking place via various platforms including randomized consumer focus groups, digital surveys and a special virtual forum being held on February 24.
