Broadcasting Commission faults Flow and Digicel over TV channel-change notices

KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Broadcasting Commission says Flow and Digicel breached the terms of their subscription television licences after its review found that customers were poorly served during channel and programming adjustments made in late 2025.

In a release issued Tuesday, the regulator said it had completed its assessment of the changes and concluded that the way subscribers were dealt with showed serious weaknesses, amounting to substandard customer service.

For Flow, the commission said the company depended heavily on email to alert customers, even though its own response data indicated that most recipients were not reading those messages. In November 2025, 68.5 per cent of delivered emails went unopened, while the figure stood at 64.1 per cent in December.

The commission also said some messages never reached customers because email addresses were inactive or wrong. It added that posting notices on a website was not a dependable way to reach subscribers in the period after a hurricane, and Flow did not submit traffic figures proving that customers had seen the online notices.

Digicel, according to the commission, removed some channels without giving customers advance notice. The company later admitted the failure in an apology sent to subscribers after the regulator opened its probe.

Although both companies added new channels or reassigned existing ones, the commission said the explanations given to customers did not provide enough detail, or any clear objective basis, to show whether the substitutes were truly comparable or whether subscribers continued to receive the same value.

Flow and Digicel have now been instructed to put stronger communication systems in place across multiple channels so customers are properly told about future service changes. The commission said notices must do more than satisfy a formality; they must be designed to reach most subscribers, including seniors and people who are not strongly connected to digital platforms.

The regulator said the outcome matters because customer service failures are recorded as part of each operator's compliance history. Those records will be considered when future licence renewals are assessed, including any conditions attached to the licences.

The Broadcasting Commission stressed that cable and subscription television providers remain free to make business choices about packages and channel line-ups. However, it said, “The issue is not the changes themselves, but the manner in which subscribers are treated. They are entitled to clear, timely and effective communication whenever their services are altered. Subscription television operators are accountable for meeting this standard.”