“This
is the first digital broadcast tower in the country and we are aiming to have
at least 18 across the island. With this technology, we will join other
Caribbean islands, including Haiti and Trinidad, and other countries in Latin
America, Europe and the United States that already have a digital broadcast
network”
President and CEO of
ReadyTV Christopher Dehring on ReadyTV's plans to launch HDTV in 2017
Looks
like FLOW Horizon and Digicel Play and getting competition in the First Quarter
of 2017. And from all the information out there, it appears to be Wireless
Cable TV with 4G LTE.
ReadyTV,
which is owned by DISL (Digital Interactive Services Limited), will be launching
in the First Quarter of 2016 as reported in the article “ReadyTV
On Target For 2017 Launch” published Friday November 18, 2016 by Keisha
Hill, The Jamaica Gleaner.
President and CEO of ReadyTV Christopher Dehring has even hinted at plans to launch 4G LTE, once they've established their Wireless Cable TV service in Jamaica. Effectively they're really planning to challenge Caricel, who have already rolled out their modem offering for faster LTE for 2017 as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Caricel’s Unlimited Modems implies FLOW and Digicel going Unlimited in 2017”.
So
who are the people behind ReadyTV?
ReadyTV to launch in
2017 – The Rebellious, Energetic, Adaptive, Determined and Yummy company
Located
at the Dominica Towers in New Kingston, the acronym stands for “Rebellious,
Energetic, Adaptive, Determined and Yummy”, already has board of directors as
follows:
1.
Chairman Peter Reid
2.
President and CEO Christopher Dehring
3.
David Cassanova
4.
Orville Burrell (Shaggy)
5.
Gerard Borely
6.
Magnus Johansson
This
appears to be an International effort, as Borely, former chief financial
officer at Cable and Wireless Caribbean is a Trinidadian and Johansson is
Swedish. Also, they're using up a lot of local talent to launch their services
to quote President and CEO Christopher Dehring: “We have employed over 15
individuals and they are the ones installing this technology, designing and
implementing the network. We are uniquely Jamaican, so much so that our vendors
are pleased with the outlook”.
They're already begun to raise capital through Mayberry, an investment company in Jamaica as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Digital Interactive Services READYTV Revolution is Cable TV for all Jamaicans”.
They
also following through with a ‘5 in 4’ growth projections i.e. 5% of GDP (gross
domestic product) growth in four (4) as noted in the article “Dehring
says Ready TV is in keeping with ‘5 in 4’ growth plan”, published Friday,
November 18, 2016 by Balford Henry, The
Jamaica Observer.
ReadyTV is Wireless
HDTV - FLOW, Digicel, CVMTV and Television Jamaica in their Crosshairs
They've
already erected one (1) of some planned eighteen (18) DTT (Digital Terrestrial
Television) Broadcast towers.
Their plan is dead simple; broadcast in HDTV and sell Wireless Set top boxes for customer to access their Cable Services to quote Christopher Dehring, quote: “This is the first digital broadcast tower in the country and we are aiming to have at least 18 across the island. With this technology, we will join other Caribbean islands, including Haiti and Trinidad, and other countries in Latin America, Europe and the United States that already have a digital broadcast network”.
The
tower's transmission power is really strong, as it covers Zone One, which
according to ReadyTV, covers the following areas:
1.
Kingston and St Andrew
2.
St Catherine
3.
Clarendon
4.
St Mary
Thus,
Cable TV in the future will not only be cheaper, due to the lack of Fiber Optic
and Coaxial Cable runs and may even have loads of local programming as I'd
predicted in my blog
article entitled “How
DISL ReadyTV set to deliver Wireless Cable TV with paid Local Jamaican Reality
TV Content”.
Meanwhile
the local Broadcasters in Jamaica, CVM TV and Television Jamaica, which is
owned by the RJR Communications group, are planning to implement DSO (Digital
Switch Over) and go HDTV in 2017 as noted in my blog article
entitled “Why
the Broadcasting Commission says Digital Switch Over coming to Jamaica in 2018”.
ReadyTV getting Ready
to take on Jamaica – Competition sure to come with DSO in 2018
ReadyTV
is taking advantage of their lead, as they anticipate that when DSO does occur
in 2018, they'll be facing a lot of competition to quote Christopher Dehring:
“Think about all those channels that that are vacant now because we are still
using analogue. You would be now creating this incredible economy and industry
because you have freed up all of this spectrum for many more entrepreneurs to
enter the business”.
DTT
is spectrally efficient, with up to 15 HDTV quality broadcasts being able to
fit into 1 analog 6GHz NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) channel
as pointed out by Christopher Dehring, quote: “It is a totally new efficiency
from the perspective of distribution because most of our competition is fixed
wire services. Imagine the cost of running fibre around the country. We take a
single analogue channel and digitise it, and with that digital transition we
are able to broadcast 15 high definition channels from that single analogue
channel”.
This
translates to also faster to set up and a faster roll out in 2017, with
customers merely having to purchase a wireless Set top Box from ReadyTV, to
quote Christopher Dehring: “It is cable television when you are ready and it is
easy to use. Customers can go into a store, purchase a box and connect it to
their television and begin viewing right away. It is wireless with instant
connection, so customers do not have to wait weeks to be able to access
authorised programming for cable television broadcasting in Jamaica”.
Suddenly,
I see visions of Executives at FLOW, Digicel, CVMTV and Television Jamaica
looking very worried, as if this catches on, 2018, may be too late for them!
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