NASSAU, BAHAMAS- The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) has pledged to investigate the quality of Cable Bahamas’ television service, describing the widespread service quality issues as “concerning”.
In a statement on its approval of Cable Bahamas Limited’s application to restructure its pay television packages, the regulator said that it found it necessary to “address customers’ discontent with CBL’s service quality which was a recurring theme in the consultation responses”.
It noted that “despite being outside the scope of this consultation, the widespread quality issues are concerning”.
URCA said that following the publication of the final decision of Cable Bahamas’ application it would launch an investigation into the recurring complaints.
Regarding the company’s approval to repackage its REVTV offers for both residential and business pay television subscribers, the regulator noted that it received over 100 written responses.
“Despite URCA’s efforts to educate the public, there was an inaccurate perception held by some that the entire repacking proposal was solely about a price increase. It appears to URCA that some respondents did not have a full understanding of the repackaging,” the regulator said.
The regulator ultimately determined that Cable Bahamas’ applications were complete, “does not give rise to any anti-competitive concerns and are compatible with the Communications Act and sector Policy objectives.”
The regulator noted that additional time beyond the one months notice is needed to inform the public of the repackaging.
URCA also noted that many respondents had indicated that they used streaming and online services such as Netflix and Amazon’s Firestick; however, only a small percentage had unsubscribed from Cable Bahamas’ services completely. Some respondents also said they were unhappy with the number of Spanish-speaking channels considering The Bahamas is an English-speaking country.
“Many respondents were unhappy with CBL’s television service quality due to recurring outages, error messages, pixelated channels an incorrect TV guide, and dissatisfaction with DVR boxes,” the regulator noted.
According to Cable Bahamas, in order to align its REVTV offers with customer viewing habits, the company will reduce the content costs of its REVTV plans by removing channels it deems to have low value to customers.
The company also plans to replace some of the more popular channels with cheaper content in line with the Hallmark approach piloted by OUR TV last year.
