I can only wonder where ITC Executive Director Alee Fa’amoe has been living over the years he has been at the helm of the regulatory body for tele communications that includes television. It cannot possibly be the Cayman Islands. And his grasp on the history of television here is zero.

This was apparent when I read his Press release (see iNews Cayman story published February 3 2017 “Cayman Islands OfReg responds to claims made by Hurley’s Media”. According to Fa’amoe it matters not a feather or a leaf (figs are expensive) to him whether FREE over the air television to the public is available or not. According to him free over the air television is a commercial proposition.

When the ICT now called OfReg (what brain came up with that name and other brains approved it?) removed the proviso that all cable companies must also provide a free over the air broadcast channel showing 40% local content, companies were queuing up to apply for a cable licence.

When CITN/Cayman27, CTS/Island24 and CiTV came on air in the late 1980’s early 1990’s all of them had to have installed a local FREE over the air broadcast television. When government approved it was meeting their requirements only then did anyone get a cable licence.

How do I know this? I, together with my wife Joan, were the owners of CITN. I was also its Managing Director until 20o4 when we sold out to WestStar, also thanks to the ITC, but that is another story.

WestStar then sold out to Logic and Logic managed to find someone, actually Randy Merren of Hurley Enterprises, to provide what is now the only FREE over the air television station.

I was surprised to learn of that announcement because I know as did the government of the day way back in the 80/90’s, a FREE over the air television station cannot operate on its own. The only revenue comes from advertising and there is nowhere near enough of that available here to even cover the basic costs. That is why we were all given the cable channels to help pay the bills.

All this history is lost on Fa’amoe.

Look at this last paragraph written by someone who has passed his diploma from the University of Gobbeldegook:

“As the regulator of ICT services in the Cayman Islands, including television broadcasting and cable TV services, OfReg acknowledges and respects the freedom of the liberalised communications market to decide what kind of local programming is of value to its customers,”said Fa’amoe. “While fully respecting the local content license obligation, service providers must be able to enter into mutually beneficial commercial agreements for that content and be able to assemble and price their services and compete for customers. This ability to create products and services and to differentiate themselves from their competitors is the cornerstone of a vibrant and competitive marketplace.”

We have a government who has spent a long time in coming up with a Cayman Culture review and is apparently going to allow Fa’amoe to make it only available on local television if one pays for it. It is a commercial enterprise he states emphatically and FLOW has been allowed to sell and distribute their cable channels without placing CITN/Caymna27 on their list of channels, nor even the Government’s own local channel (that is not free over the air).

This is Fa’amoe’s own statement on this:

“Each of the three operating cable TV providers has license conditions requiring it to carry a minimum percentage of local programming which includes such items as local talk shows, educational, cultural, and religious programming, live sporting events, government information services, and live coverage of the Legislative Assembly. OfReg does not, however, require TV providers or cable providers to produce or to carry any specific shows.”

So exactly where does FLOW comply to these conditions?

Now Logic has got rid of CITN they have now told Hurley’s Media they want them to pay them for the privilege of having Cayman27 on their list of channels. Even though they have to pay for all the foreign channels they show. Perhaps they can tell me the logic of that one?

Unless government immediately steps in and takes away the reins from Fa’amoe, free over the air television broadcasting will be lost. Even the local content broadcasting one has to pay for is in jeopardy.

Randy Merren told me he had sat down with Fa’amoe before he bought CITN, and shown him all the figures how the station could only be paid for. That was a MUST CARRY proviso with all the cable providers. This is not an uncommon proviso as it is done in the USA and the UK with FREE over the air broadcast channels.

It was up to Fa’amoe to make sure all the cable providers supported the only FREE over the air channel but instead he allowed them to avoid what was once a must provide requirement – everyone of them having to have their own FREE broadcast channel.

I urge the public to canvas your MLA’s because if you leave it to the Cayman regulator – ICT, OfReg, Utility Regulation and Competition Office, or whatever name the want to call themselves you will not only lose “Daybreak” you will lose whatever Cayman Culture the powers that be have decided what it is.

What it is will not be shown free over the air. You will have to pay for it if you can actually find a channel on the cable network you subscribe to. To Fa’amoe it is just a commercial exercise.

As a side note I was invited to appear on the FREE over the air local television stations’s News at 6pm to discuss this whole point. I accepted. You can view the whole interview I had with Tammi Sulliman at: https://cayman27.ky/2017/02/tv-regulator-denies-blame-for-sunset-on-daybreak/