NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Thursday, July 22, 2005: “This is the biggest thing to happen to cable television in the Bahamas since we started more than 10 years ago.” That’s the way that Cable Bahamas Director of Marketing and Pay-Per-View David Burrows categorised the launch of digital cable television services to the Bahamas. The company announced today that digital cable would be launched August 22 in Eleuthera, October 3 in Grand Bahama and Abaco, and on October 11 in New Providence with a line-up of 275 channels.
The announcement came less than a week after the company revealed that a newly organised basic cable channel lineup was coming as part of an overall plan to bring these four major islands identical cable TV services.
Mr Burrows said that the launch of digital cable will bring vast new choices for cable television subscribers. “Using the latest digital technology we can offer many more channels and services than was ever before possible. Currently we are limited to about 125 channels but with digital cable we will have nearly 300 channels initially to choose from with the capacity for many more in the future,” Burrows said. He stated that other new services would also be available, including a fast, advanced interactive programme guide, and personal video recorders built in to digital cable set-top boxes that use computer disk drives rather than video tapes to record programmes. Eventually the company plans to make video-on-demand and high definition television (HDTV) channels available to digital cable subscribers.
“We are also excited that NFL Sunday Ticket will be available exclusively on digital cable this season,” Mr Burrows announced.
“All of our digital cable packages have been redesigned for maximum value and choice. We will now have packages with two or three times the number of channels than in the past, with channels that will appeal to many more people in a household,” Burrows said. He noted that the “very first level of digital programming will include 125 channelsﾗincluding basic cable channels in full digital formatﾗfor just $34.95”.
To receive digital services cable subscribers will require a new digital set-top box, soon to be available. There will be several different models at different pricing levels from which to choose with different features in each. Cable subscribers with an existing analogue set-top box will be offered a trade-in rebate to be applied to the purchase of a digital set-top box. Subscribers will soon be able to review the entire new digital channel selection and launch updates on the company’s web site, www.cablebahamas.com.
Cable Bahamas Ltd. is majority owned by 2,500 Bahamians and the Government of the Bahamas. The company’s 248 employees provide world-class broadband cable television service on 16 Bahamian islands; high-speed Internet access services in Grand Bahama, Abaco, Eleuthera and New Providence; connectivity between the Bahamas and the rest of the world with a 850-kilometre, submarine, fibre-optic system owned and operated by wholly-owned subsidiary Caribbean Crossings Ltd; and web-hosting, data centre, and disaster recovery services through wholly-owned subsidiary Maxil Communications Ltd. Cable Bahamas’ ordinary shares trade on the Bahamas International Stock Exchange (symbol: CAB).
