49 Cable Providers told by @BCJamaica to remove 19 Cable Channels - VPN Streaming of Netflix and illegal DVD's as @FLOWja is expensive

“Cable operators have been directed to remove these channels and provide subscribers with notice of the discontinuation and an explanation of the reasons for doing so. Cable operators must also make whatever arrangements become necessary based on the terms of contracts with subscribers including refunds and channel substitution where applicable”

Chairman of the Broadcasting Commission Professor Hopeton Dunn at a news conference at the Commission's New Kingston offices on Friday April 24th 2015 announced plans to block Cable Channels

Looks like Summer is going to be very boring for some Jamaicans. And you have President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, who came to Jamaica on Thursday April 9^th 2015 to thank for that

Come Sunday May 31^st 2015, nineteen (19) Cable channels being broadcast in Jamaica by some forty nine (49) Cable operators will have to be removed due to breaches of United States (US) intellectual property rights as state in the article “Local Viewers To Lose Several Cable Channels As Operators Ordered To Cease Illegal Showing Of Content”, published Friday April 24, 2015 by Anastasia Cunningham, The Jamaica Gleaner and “19 channels to be removed from cable TV”, published Friday, April 24, 2015, The Jamaica Observer.

This is after US Trade Representatives traveling with Barack Obama on his visit to Jamaica had discussions with the BCJ (Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica). These discussions were related to some of the forty nine (49) Cable operators breaching United States intellectual property rights by broadcasting several Cable channels and programs without paying Content makers and Providers for their content.

49 Cable Providers told by BCJ to stop broadcasting 19 Cable Channels - How Streaming Netflix and Hulu via VPN will increase as FLOW is expensive

I won't get into the quibble about the fact that these Illegal Cable operators have basically been rebroadcasting some ninety eight (98) channels and its content for free for years without paying content providers abroad.

Instead, those forty nine (49) Cable operators as per the article “49 Cable Companies Breaching Copyright Laws”, Published Friday April 24, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner knew this day was coming. They also have a choice: either remove these nineteen (19) Cable channels or regularize by paying the appropriate fees to the content providers in the US of A.

So starting Friday April 24^th 2015, they have to start the process, which the BCJ has given them two (2) weeks to achieve.

These nineteen (19) Cable channels are listed in the article “Full List - 19 Cable Channels To Be Removed By May 31”, Published Friday April 24, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner and “Plug to be pulled on 19 channels”, published Saturday, April 25, 2015 BY RICHARD JOHNSON Observer senior reporter, The Jamaica Observer and are as follow:

1. Encore Black
2. Encore Family
3. Encore Love
4. Encore Suspense
5. Encore WAM
6. Encore Classic
7. Encore Drama
8. Encore Mystery
9. Encore Movie Plex
10. The Movie Channel Xtra 4
11. Showtime East
12. Showtime West
13. Showtime TOO
14. Showtime 2
15. Showtime Showcase
16. Starz Comedy
17. Starz West
18. Starz Kids & Family
19. Starz Multiplex

This is just an initial list, as the forty nine (49) Cable operators are said to be illegally broadcasting some ninety eight (98) more channels, suggesting another seventy nine (79) are slated to be blocked soon after Sunday May 31^st 2015.   

Meanwhile FLOW is planning to increase their prices in order to pay for the content that they have to broadcast after having removed the nineteen (19) channels as noted in the article “Flow reviewing its cable pricing system — Sinclair”, published Sunday, April 26, 2015  BY HG HELPS Editor-at-Large, The Jamaica Observer.

So what’s to happen next? Start looking for alternative ways to watch American content. 

Streaming set to rise in Jamaica – Buying Movies in Half-Way-Tree and Downtown may be next

Something tells me that Netflix Streaming via VPN (Virtual Private Network) as described in my blog article entitled “Surfing the Internet Anonymously using VPN - How to use Streaming Set Top Boxes over VPN”  is suddenly going to get very popular.

Already I've gotten a few calls asking about the very same thing. I don’t see how this is a problem, as many Jamaican are slowly getting access to Broadband Internet and thus have the option to pay for Streaming of content.

This doesn’t affect me personally either.

I don't watch Cable TV either here in Kingston while I’m studying for my Professional Diploma in Teaching at the MICO University College or back home in Clarendon and neither do most people in Milk River, Clarendon where I’m from.

Most Milk River peeps and myself included downloads what content we watch as explained in my MICO Wars Blog article entitled “How to download Free Music using Torrenting, Google Index Searches and YouTube to MP3 Converters”.

Even books I read I mainly get from free e-book and audiobooks resources online as per my MICO Wars Blog article entitled “How Jamaicans can download free Audiobooks without a Credit Card”.

Finally, I stream a lot of my Radio when I’m working around a computer as noted in MICO Wars Blog article entitled “How to get Streaming Jamaican Radio Stations” as I don’t like walking around with a mini-pocket Radio.

This heavy-handed action by the US Content Providers, albeit justified due to our increasing consumption of American content, will result in many Jamaican merely cutting their Cable packages with legal subscriber like FLOW. This as if they comply and pay the required Licensing fees for content, the prices for their Cable package will go up.

Even if they don't, when they cut the other seventy nine (79) channels beyond the initial nineteen (19) Cable channels, they might have to raise prices just to keep themselves in operation, as most of those channels are also in breach as well.

Most Jamaican are spoiled towards thinking that this content was free.

Many Jamaican are unwilling to accept this and may opt to just buy illegal DVD Movies and shows to get their fix. But it won’t be long before the Government, under pressure from American Content providers, clamp down on that activity as well.

What form this action will take, we'll only find out after Sunday May 31^st 2015.