Having already acquired broadcast rights for some of the top sporting events for 2022 and beyond, Oliver McIntosh, the president and chief executive officer of VertiCast Media Group Limited, says the vertically integrated media company can be held to its promise to deliver top-quality content across the region.

But while he said the company has secured deals with CTV in Antigua, MCTV in Barbados, One Communication in Bermuda, Logics in Cayman Islands, The Cable in St Kitts and two entities yet to be confirmed in Trinidad and Tobago, McIntosh noted he is awaiting word from Jamaica’s major cable operators, Flow and Digicel.

“We have made the same offer to everybody and our objective is to make sure that everyone has access to the channels, so if certain subscribers or cable operators don’t want it then that’s up to them. We have made multiple approaches and we await their response,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“We will still provide the service via our app to make sure that people can access it, but we are trying to get it on all the cable platforms. Our view is that we want to make our colleagues in the broadcast environment as strong as possible,” McIntosh added.

On Thursday, the Observer tried, without success, to get a response from Flow or Digicel.

Among VertiCast’s holdings so far are exclusive and non-exclusive rights to the Fifa Men’s World Cup in Qatar later this year, as well as exclusive rights to broadcast the English Premier League (EPL) for the next three seasons, starting next month.

McIntosh declared that VertiCast wants to provide open access to premium content rather than placing a limit on the number of partners in a particular market.

He said his company is all about crafting partnerships which will reshaping the broadcast landscape in the Caribbean.

“We don’t think like that and we intend to change that so the Caribbean audience can have easy access to the best international and local content and experiences,” he said.

McIntosh, who boasts a two-decade-long stewardship and experience from his time at SportsMax, assembled a team — including former Flow marketing guru Carlo Redwood as chief commercial officer — and conceptualised VertiCast with an intent to broadcast over television and digital media via streaming and mobile through various partnerships, and on VertiCast’s own channels, CSport and CSport2.

According to McIntosh, the vision behind the company, which will officially launch its service next week, was to set up a regional media broadcaster and distributor of content that delivers content across different genres, with sports headlining the list.

“So in setting it up like that, it meant that we would operate across different platforms as well. So our vision is to become the first media company in the Caribbean that goes across all the broadcast platforms,” he said of VertiCast, which came to fruition last year.

“So we will partner and work with free-to-air television, we will have our own cable television stations, we will have our own production company and we will have our apps and digital media as well for the different types of content,” McIntosh added.

Given what can only be described as a pretty ambitious and aggressive approach, VertiCast’s acquisitions for their start-up year is said to value approximately US$70 million and includes content, broadcast infrastructure and distribution via fibre and satellite.

VertiCast’s Premier League agreement, which expires at the end of the 2024-2025 season, covers rights to all 380 matches and highlights, and allows for VertiCast and its partners to provide full regional coverage, broadcasting on TV, cable, radio, mobile apps and online platforms.

McIntosh explained that their line-up also includes rights to European competitions — such as UEFA Nations League and Euros — and the NFL, and delivering to audiences spanning 26 Caribbean countries, a market of over 44 million people.

“So we are really stretching across everything within broadcast on a regional basis hence the ‘Vert’ in the VertiCast. We will be international standard, high definition and again, we will have an app that goes along with it,” he told the Observer.

“For NFL we will carry games on Sundays, plus coverage of Thursday night games, Thanksgiving Day games, play-off games and broadcast of the Mega Event — the Super Bowl. And we are adding more content as we go along so we will just announce more and more [content],” he noted.

Where the English Premier League is concerned, McIntosh promised that regional football fans will have unprecedented access to the games on an extensive variety of channels.

“So what we are doing is we are offering two channels to ensure that every single Premier League match will be carried live.

“We live and breathe sports and so we want to offer the best sports possible. We have full confidence that we will satisfy the Caribbean’s growing appetite for football, as many who have not had access in the past, will be able to watch their favourite Premier League teams,” McIntosh stated.