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Cable company to drop popular movie channels



BY ASHA JAVEED


The cable company Flow will stop broadcasting the popular movie channels Showtime, the Movie Channel and Starz as well as the US feeds of HBO and Cinemax from November 30.

From the next day, December 1, it will launch a new suite of services - HBO LA - and stop showing all “non-authorised premium movie channels.”

Flow’s president John Reid said, “Customers on both our analog and digital platforms will preview the new premium movie services during the month of December and on January 1, customers who choose to subscribe to these optional services will be charged according to the package chosen.”

Analog customers will have the option of subscribing to the following movie packages at a fee of $64.99 each.

n HBO Caribbean

n HBO LA East

n HBO Plus

n Cinemax East and

n Cinemax West

Digital customers will have the option of subscribing to three packages, all of which include The Sundance Channel.

“The movie channels have been included free of charge as part of the basic channel line-up since they were launched by CCTT. Flow has long maintained that when we started paying for HBO and other movie services, customers would also be required to pay.

“The basic monthly fee for all non-movie services compares very favourably to rates charged by cable television operators in the Caribbean and in North America,” said Reid.

The announcement was made at a press conference yesterday as Flow signed a content agreement with HBO after two years of negotiations.

“Similar to other agreements, Flow will pay HBO a monthly fee that reflects the number of customers subscribing to its various services,” he said.

Reid explained that when Flow acquired the assets of CCTT, it also got it’s unsigned contracts with content providers- 30 out of 68 contracts were unsigned.

The company now has 268 channels with 258 signed contracts. It is expecting to close contracts in the coming months.

The HBO agreement is not retroactive.

Javier Figueras, vice president of affiliate sales of HBO Latin America Group said that the agreement was a new one and the content, except the HBO Caribbean channel, will be exactly what is offered by Direct TV.

HBO recently announced the creation of a Caribbean channel of English language content.

“The legitimisation of movie services was identified by Columbus Communications as a priority when it acquired CCTT in 2005. Accessing copyright-cleared programming for the Caribbean, particularly premium movie service content, has been a challenge for all cable television operators in the region and we are pleased that Columbus and HBO have reached this milestone agreement,” said Reid.

“The process has been a long and difficult one, as Flow's primary concern was ensuring that any programming changes would be beneficial to our customers, as well as relevant to this market.

“HBO’s decision to launch a 100 per cent English-speaking version of its HBO LA channel in 2007 was a critical development and one that was instrumental in reaching an agreement,” said Reid.
©2005-2006 Trinidad Publishing Company Limited