BCJ cites Flow and Digicel over customer notice failures in TV channel shake-up

The Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica has found that Flow and Digicel breached their subscription television licences through what it described as “poor and unacceptable customer service” when managing channel changes rolled out last year.

In a statement on Tuesday, the BCJ said its review showed that the country’s two leading telecommunications companies did not do enough to alert subscribers about adjustments to their television programming. The commission said the way customers were handled exposed serious weaknesses amounting to substandard service.

Flow, the regulator said, depended heavily on email alerts even though its own figures showed most customers were not opening them. The BCJ said 68.5 per cent of Flow emails in November 2025 were unread, while 64.1 per cent of those sent in December were also unopened. Some other messages never reached subscribers because email addresses were inactive or incorrect.

The commission also took issue with Flow’s website notices, saying that approach required customers to seek out the information themselves. It said such a method was especially weak after hurricanes, when internet service may be affected. Hurricane Melissa caused major damage across Jamaica in October 2025. The BCJ said Flow also could not produce data proving subscribers had seen the online notices.

Digicel was also faulted. The commission said its response was inadequate because it failed to give advance warning before removing some television channels. According to the BCJ, Digicel later accepted the failure and apologised to customers after the regulator began investigating the matter.

Although both companies added new channels and changed the use of others, the BCJ said subscribers were not given enough information. It said customers lacked the detail needed to judge whether replacement channels were similar to those removed, or whether their packages still carried the same value.

The regulator has ordered Flow and Digicel to strengthen how they communicate future service changes. It said they must use wider, multi-channel systems so subscribers are properly informed, adding: “Notices must be effective, not perfunctory.”

The BCJ said any future notices must be able to reach and inform most customers, including older subscribers and people who are not strongly connected to digital platforms.

The commission stressed that subscription television operators may still make business decisions about channel line-ups and package structures, but said they must treat customers properly when services change. It said the problem was not the decision to alter channels, but the way subscribers were dealt with, noting that customers deserve clear, timely and useful information.

The BCJ said the breaches will be added to each company’s compliance history and may be considered in future relicensing reviews, including any terms and conditions attached to renewed licences.