THE Fair Trading Commission (FTC) has been summoned by the court to examine the case in which VertiCast Media Group, the parent company of sports broadcaster CSport, is suing Cable and Wireless and Digicel for what it calls “anti-competitive” behaviour.

VertiCast in a media release Wednesday said it made a filing in the Supreme Court alleging that Cable and Wireless which operates as Flow in the consumer market, and Digicel, employed anti-competitive practices to exclude VertiCast channels CSport and CSport2 from their pay television cable networks. The parties all appeared in court Thursday, but the case was put off for mentioning again on April 19. The FTC is also to appear in the case.

Caribbean Business Report reached out to Digicel, but the company said it would not be commenting publicly on the issue at this time. Cable and Wireless said it would be sending out a release on the matter, but that was not received up to press time. A call to Oliver McIntosh, president and CEO of VertiCast Media, went unanswered. Questions emailed to him on Thursday were unanswered up to press time, but in a brief phone conversation Wednesday, he said he would not be commenting on the case since the matter is now in court.

VertiCast’s court action follows its failure to broadcast Premier League matches across the region since early February. The company appeared on the scene in the summer of 2022 when it announced that it had acquired the rights to the Premier League for the 2022/23 to 2024/25 season. But VertiCast has failed in various negotiations with Flow and Digicel to get its channels on the telcos cable network across the Caribbean. It operates in some countries on cable, like in Trinidad and Tobago where its channel is offered on Amplia, a cable TV subscription service.

That failure pushed VertiCast to create an app to capture the Premier League market in the region, but even here, there have been challenges. Consumers complain regularly online about the buffering of the app when they try to access it and how inconvenient it is to switch between matches. Technology experts say some of the issues outlined with the app and the buffering appears to stem from its content not being pushed by enough bandwidth.

But even that app has been down and is not showing any Premier League match now for weeks forcing fans to find illegal streaming sites to continue watching the games risking legal issues.
Caribbean Business Report also understands that VertiCast has written to the telcos urging them to block streaming channels that consumers are using now to watch the Premier League, but it is not clear if that request has been implemented. It is understood that the technology to survey, find and block streaming sites could cost up to US$500,000 over a period of up to 10 days. So far, VertiCast itself has been losing customers who have been unsubscribing from its app.

It is not clear what the issues are surrounding VertiCast and its inability to continue showing the Premier League. The questions sent to McIntosh seek answers on that issue as well.

VertiCast in 2022 outbid Caribbean Premier Sports Limited (CPSL) — a joint venture between Flow and Digicel that operates sports broadcaster RUSH. It is not clear how much VertiCast paid for the rights to show the Premier League in the region, but it is understood that it could cost between US$30 million and US$35 million for the three-year period over which the Premier League sells the rights. But these rights come with other costs in a package deal for a satellite company to transmit the matches and also for Premier League Productions, the company that produces pre-game and post-game shows. The cost for these are separate from the rights for the Premier League.

Caribbean Business Report reached out to the Premier League to ascertain if there are any issues with any of these payments, but did not get any response to email queries up to press time.