Anguillians and other residents on the island crowded the lobby area of Caribbean Cable Communications (CCC) on Monday to purchase new boxes as the company transformed its operations with a high quality digital television service.
Beaming with the successful launching of the new digital format, offering customers “better pictures, better sound and better TV”, company President, Lee Bertman, told The Anguillian that going digital was an incredible step forward. “As you probably know, Caribbean Cable Television Holdings owns the Anguilla Company, the Nevis and the Montserrat Companies and we manage those,” he proudly said, indicating the present and future growth of the business he established a quarter century ago.
Working closely with him, in addition to his wife, Mrs. SuzanneBertman (Vice President Corporate Marketing), is John Grey, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of the parent company as well.
Asked what the new change will mean for the company’s growing number of customers, Mr. Bertman replied: “Going digital is an incredible step forward and you really need to see it in combination with internet. That is because almost all television programming these days – in fact everything with very few exceptions –is digital. Many people are well aware that they can receive programming over the internet which is digital-delivered. We are now changing the format and the entire concept of our programme is to go digital.
“It means many, many things for customers. First, it means that they will have better TV pictures. Folks who have the dual sets, with HDMI capability, will be able to see both Standard Definition andHigh Definition with much better clarity. In fact, if you look at ESPN in HD it is amazing. Our CTO (Chief Technology Officer), Fred Davis, is working on the new format and I am sure that over the next few weeks he will be refining the pictures.
“The other thing that customers will notice, immediately, is that we have a completely different channel line-up. We have added some channels and we have re-organised the format to a more logical approach than we had before. Another thing customers will notice is that we have various groups of channels and I think the grouping is more logical. Right now we are offering new channels –a free tier for the time-being – and we will decide how we want to go forward with it. Amongst them are the African Channel at High Definition and Standard Definition, and ESPN Caribbean which has a lot of Caribbean sports – and those HD pictures are spectacular. I understand that there are some sports addicts who have tuned their sets to that channel which is going to change in the next six months – may be next year. I think that is a big plus.We have put backsome of the classics such as BET which we had many years ago and then there is Space TV.”
Mr. Bertman stated that previously the company was limited to 78 channels on the analogue system but its limitation was now about 400. He said it did not mean that the company would provide or could afford that number of channels, but the new digital system had literally multiplied by 6 the number which could now be offered.
That is a fantastic benefit,” he continued. “Another benefit is that we can now do tiers in a way that we couldn’t before we had the ability to scramble and offer individual channels. We have maintained that capability but now the format is expanded so that if we wanted to put in a five-channel sports tier, we can do that. We couldn’t do that before. One of the problems we previously had is that the analogue equipment had become so antiquated that clearly it wasn’t working properly, and we couldn’t find replacements so we really had to go forward with this technology.What we are doing is more akin to the internet than it is to broadcasting. So we are moving in an entirely new direction, combining digital television with an internet service.”
Mr. Bertman was asked about the cost of the transformation from analogue to digital. “It has literally cost millions of dollars at our head-end,” he responded. “That is because we are now receiving the signals by IP (Internet Protocol) and we have entirely new equipment. It is also in terms of the set-top boxes that decode the digital system and interface with your TV set.”
The company’s President was asked whether the new digital system gave Caribbean Cable Communications the ability to expand its services to other islands. “The answer is yes, because we are going digital in Nevis where we already have much of the equipment,” he stated. “We are looking at transmitting the digital from Nevis to Montserrat; then we are looking at expanding to other islands with digital. We have done something unusual for the English-speaking Caribbean, especially for this market. We had a choice of putting in a digital system that was standard definitional and would have been much less expensive than the system we chose.We have the ability as we go forward to continually improve our service. It is giving us a tremendously competitive edge in going to the much-more complicated technology that gives us the ability to continuously build on this digital platform.”
John Grey, one of Mr.Bertman’s right-hand colleagues, in the parent company, was asked what he wished to tell customers. “The first thing I like to do is just to tell them to try the box,” he advised. “The digital television is very good. The quality, as Lee has said, is excellent. There is a good range of channels. We have improved the channel line-up and there will be more developments on the way over the next year or two. Just enjoy the experience.”
