Late last year when Chris Dehring left his post as chairman of telecommunications company LIME Jamaica and moved to, of all places, a similar position at the Caribbean Cement Company, it seemed like his telecom journey was about to end.

Fourteen months later, it looks like he is about to begin another era in his entrepreneurial career as he prepares to introduce digital television to Jamaica via his company, Digital Interactive Services Limited (DISL).

The company recently set up its first digital tower in Jamaica, at a location he has refused to reveal for security reasons, and through which he is committed to providing digital cable television services by March next year.

Dehring sees the new project as not only providing Jamaicans with the best quality television service available worldwide, but thinks that it is a very timely intervention into the process of Jamaica achieving the national target of five per cent growth in four years.

He also sees it as opening up the process of transitioning local television from its current analogue status to digitalisation, which has been delayed for at least six years.

“The fact that Jamaica kept postponing its transition date (from analogue to TV digital service) created an opportunity for us,” he swagged as he addressed the issue of DISL finally introducing digital television to Jamaica in the first quarter of 2017.

“Everybody including the Government clearly faced challenges in coming up with the right model. We have taken up that challenge because it is an opportunity for us, and so this is the change (transition). Jamaicans can now say we have started the transition,” he argued.

What that means to the Ministry of Information and the Broadcasting Commission is not immediately clear, but at least Dehring’s remarks make sense when he points out that all the Government has to do now is to build on the platform that DISL is creating.

“This is the change. Jamaica can now say that we have started the digital transition,” he added, noting that DISL is not worried about competition, because “why would anybody want to put up another digital network?”

HAITI

The United States, one of Jamaica’s major trading partners and a significant source of equipment and programming, switched to full digital broadcasting in February 2009. Europe had already embarked on its own phased process of transition. In addition, Commonwealth countries such as South Africa and Australia are already moving forward with their plans for digital switchover.

However, Jamaica is yet to achieve that goal despite the fact that neighbour’s like Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, and Bermuda have already done so.

The fact is that digital platforms broaden the scope for a richer, more enhanced media experience, given the potential for multimedia applications, new domestic commercial services, and better technical quality.

They also offer greater opportunities for mobile, portable and pocket equipment in line with next-generation network (NGN) technologies.

As plans forged ahead towards digital switchover in other parts of the world, Jamaica was challenged to confront the reality that, if it took too long to make the shift, it risked being placed at an economic disadvantage and ending up on the wrong side of the ‘digital divide’.

That fear grabbed Dehring’s attention over the recent years, and he has been putting together an organisation and a team to speed up the digital transition as a part of public private partnership.

He says that his company’s move could be an input into meeting the challenge of ‘5 in 4’ growth projections (of five per cent gross domestic product growth in four years) through cost efficiency, for example, which gives digital TV a competitive advantage in the cable market.

“It is a totally new efficiency from the perspective of distribution because most of our competition is fixed wire services. Imagine the cost of running fibre around the country. We take a single analogue channel and digitise it, and with that digital transition we are able to broadcast 15 high definition channels from that single analogue channel,” he explained.

“Think about all those channels that that are vacant now because we are still using analogue. You would be now creating this incredible economy and industry because you have freed up all of this spectrum for many more entrepreneurs to enter the business,” he stated.

He said that the new digital source would also create additional space for the creation and production of local talent.

“I don’t think that people understand the opportunities for Jamaica as a priority. Because, if you understand what we are good at — we are creating living, breathing content which is not getting exposure because they have not been monitised.

“Go to any dance in the nights and you see the dancers dancing; that’s living, breathing content, but it is being wasted because it is for free. Now with a digital platform, by freeing up all this band waste and converting it into broadcast high-definition channels, you can now let go the whole creative force of this country,” he stated.

Dehring says ReadyTV has put up its network and is testing different digital boxes and “rabbit ears” antennas.

“We are confident that there is a need for the service and we feel confident that we can fill that need. But, like any other investment, there are risks, and the risks are worth it,” he said.