LIME launches IPTV Streaming Service LIME TV in Barbados on schedule - Lady Gaga's Bad Romance for Digital Cable and Free-to-Air Broadcasters

Telecom Provider LIME’s promise as made earlier to launch their IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) Service in Jamaica and Barbados by the First Quarter of 2012AD, April 2012AD as stated in the article “LIME's cable TV technology will be able to offer up to 130 channels”, published Wednesday, October 05, 2011, The Jamaica Observer has been partially fulfilled.

This as the service has now gone live in Barbados in a service which has curiously been branded with the same name as it DVB-H (Digital video Broadcast  - Handheld) service,LIME TV in Jamaica  as stated in the article “LIME launches pay TV in Barbados”, published Monday, April 23, 2012, The Jamaica Observer.

Truly, CWC (Cable and Wireless Worldwide) had seen the benefits of LIME TV in Jamaica and this massive investment push into IPTV Streaming television is the expression of their confidence in the Management of Telecom Provider LIME.

In addition, CWC, Telecom Provider LIME’s parent is expanding an already existing service that has had a good uptake by the population in Panama and Monaco with similar Pay TV Services. In the Caribbean, LIME TV Services in the form of DVB-H viewable on Mobile phones has already been rolled out in St. Lucia and Jamaica. So this has gone a bit beyond an experiment: people are indeed receptive to Pay Television streamed to them and do indeed like the idea of TV Anywhere, Anytime.

I rarely say this, but this time Telecom Provider LIME has kept to its schedule and is in the process of delivering on its promise of an IPTV Streaming Service with this initial rollout in Barbados. With Jamaica coming up next on their schedule and with it a possible expansion of the upgrade of the Wireless 3G Internet Broadband service throught Jamaica to deliver this VAS (Value Added Service) to customers at competitive prices.

Again the words of Telecom Provider LIME Chairman and Chief Marketing Officer Chris Dehring expectations of the service is upbeat, quote: “Our goal is to provide consumers with a pay TV product that is functionally superior to their current experience, delivers higher levels of service and is easy to use. The launch of LIME TV is an important step towards delivering entertainment services to all our customers. Pay TV is an important growth opportunity for us.”

More importantly, it will fulfill my prediction of free-to-air Broadcasters and Triple Play Provider FLOW effectively having new competition and gradually being made extinct as stated in the blog article entitled “LIME parent CWC partners with Avail-TVN to provide IPTV Streaming Service - War of The Worlds against Netflix”.

Juniper Networks will provide the IPTV Streaming Gear and the Platform that will convert the content supplied by Content Provider Avail-TVN to data that can be streamed over Telecom Provider LIME soon-to-be-upgraded HSDPA+ Release 7 (High Speed Downlink Packet Access Plus) Network. At one hundred and thirty channels, this IPTV Streaming service does not hold a candle up to Triple Play Provider FLOW’ offer of thousands of channels most of them coming in 1080p HDTV.

Just for comparison, the content provided by this new service to Barbados’ 287,000 strong population includes ABC, CBC and NBC, ESPN, MTV, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros channel and BBC America. Telecom Provider LIME has not left out Sports channels which currently will include a serving of HBO and Max (formerly Cinemax).

But throw in the fact that the service can offer to set top boxes and HSDPA+ Release 7 the following incentives and you realize that this Wireless service has the potential to shake up a lot of people in the IPTV Streaming world:

1.      MPEG-4 Compressed Video Stream for efficient bandwidth usage

2.      3D Capable (Triple Play ProviderFLOW, take note!!!!)

3.      Support for up to 130 channels, (albeit this is no longer a big talking point!)

4.      Streaming to 3G Capable Cable Boxes as well as any 3G Capable Device

5.      ABR (Adaptive Bit Rate)

6.      TV Anywhere

Already, in Barbados, Telecom Provider LIME has their own television channel to showcase their products and announce the launch of new products, also cleverly named LIME Style. Most likely the use of the name “LIME TV” is for brand identification and was done to create continuity for the original DVB-H mobile phone based LIME TV Service.

So with their venture into content provision, even if it’s a channel showcasing  mobile phones and broadband product ads with some nice visuals and titillating Caribbean beauties!

The possibility that they may have content coming driven by Media Personalities who may have left the Free-to-Air Broadcasting world, such as Pepita Little as prognosticated in my blog article entitled “LIME chooses Juniper Networks to rebroadcast Avail-TVN's Content - Pepita Little's Ghostbusters to capture Media Personalities” is going to become a reality.

Stay tuned to this Blog and the Geezam Blog as to the eventual launch of this service in Jamaica, as we are then next Guinea Pigs set to take our turn in the treadmill in what is now a Bad Romance Lady Gaga Style for Digital Cable Providers and Free-to-Air Television!