BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IN what could be described as a ‘grand party-styled event’, telecommunications giant FLOW on Friday evening (Oct. 13) launched its new IPTV service in St. Kitts and Nevis at the Food Court on Port Zante.
Despite its late start due to the closure of some roadways, the proceedings were welcomed as the company showcased its latest in television service that comprises a selection of channels from education and cartoons to adult contents as well as movies.
The new service, which has been long in coming, is expected to rival the Digicel play and the current product offered by The Cable in St. Kitts.
According to FLOW’s packages, customers could get 33 channels inclusive of 3 local stations for $55.56, which comes with five hours of cloud service, or 70 channels for $76.92 with 10 hours of cloud storage.
TV lovers who have a craving for non-stop programming could choose the TV max pack, which offers 93 channels for $111.11 with a 15-hour cloud service.
Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of the event, FLOW’s General Manager, David Lake explained that the service offers customers over 160 channels at crystal clear quality.
He also said that over 80% of those channels are high definitions stations.
“Included in that service, customers have video on demand, a wide library on demand – that is movies they can look at. But, to me, one of the best features of FLOW TV is the educational piece. FLOW TV offers the educational piece where they offer the study, which is an online tutorial service that allows students who are preparing for the CSEC and CAPE exams to look at tutorials being done online. They can look at problems being solved, they can take test exams, and they can take mock exams in preparation for their overseas exams.”
Pointing to his expectations for the new service, the General Manager noted that they are hopeful that “persons are going to try it and, when they do, there will be no going back”.
On St. Kitts many people have complained about the service offered by the lone television provide, which in many instances has blackouts on content because they do not hold the rights to a number of the programmes or channels they offer.
Currently, football enthusiasts are disappointed after it was revealed that the provider (The Cable) does not have the rights to broadcast this season’s Barclays Premier League, with FLOW Sports being the official carrier.
Lake stated that there was a positive response from the sample population that FLOW used as a tester for the new service, and that the company is expecting a similar response from new customers.
An optimistic Lake noted that with the wide array of contents and features, the company is expected to outpace its competitors, who have been in the market for many years.
“There is also more to come,” he said. “This is just the start of it. We have some other features that are coming that I cannot mention right now, but shortly we are going to be looking at launching the convert service – where you can start looking at a programme at home, stop it and continue looking at it on your phone or on your laptop…”
One of the features that is expected to make a hit with customers is the pause and playback of live content, which is an important addition in many of the international markets.
