Staff writer – Kerran Monroe
TVJ BUYS RIGHTS TO AIR THE VOICE EXCLUSIVELY IN JAMAICA: FLOW CUSTOMERS NOT HAPPY
In Jamaica news. So Television Jamaica (TVJ) decided to jump on the Tessanne Chin bandwagon for their own financial reasons. Of course, they will tell us, they are doing this so that the average Jamaican can share in the experience of seeing Tessanne Chin represent on an international talent stage such as The Voice.
How did they do that? They bought exclusive rights to air the show in Jamaica. This means if you are a Flow customer who watched Tessanne on NBC, the first night of auditions, you will not be able to anymore. Television Jamaica bought the rights from NBC to air the show. This means that Flow will have to disrupt regular programming on NBC when The Voice is on; so Flow customers are left with a raw deal.
Flow made the announcement on their Facebook page, saying “Television Jamaica Limited (TVJ), has acquired the rights from NBC, to broadcast The Voice in Jamaica.This means that Flow must block broadcasts of The Voice on NBC channels, since TVJ has acquired the exclusive broadcast rights for Jamaica.
Tessanne Chin. tvline.com
Flow will therefore interrupt service on NBC channels, during their broadcast of The Voice. Flow acknowledges that blocked content is disruptive for viewers and apologizes for any inconvenience caused. We assure our customers that the normal broadcast of NBC will resume when The Voice has ended for the evening. Flow advises our valued customers that The Voice normally seen on NBC, is now only available for broadcast on TVJ (Channel #110) at 9:00 pm on Mondays and 9:30 pm on Tuesdays.”
Flow customers were not amused and the Television Jamaica Facebook fan page came under a lot of fire from the Flow customers. Now, one may ask; so what is the big deal if the show is being aired on local TV to give those without cable a chance to view it? The issue is that TVJ is not able to air the program live because the show comes on at 7 when Prime Time news is on. So TVJ will be airing the show, 2 hours after the show is aired.
Hence, people are upset that after buying these rights TVJ will not be able to bring the show live; so Jamaicans will have to watch the show after the fact. Also, voting closes 2 hours after the show is aired; and while Jamaicans may not be able to vote anyway, they could still play a role during the live broadcast of the show by creating social media hype, like they did during the auditions when Tessanne Chin was a trending topic on twitter. Social media hype can make a difference as to how far a contestant can go in these competitions.
So TVJ our darling station seemed to have really done it this time. Mere minutes after the news broke, there was a Facebook page created to boycott TVJ’s exclusive delayed airing of the show. Persons have already shared link where the show can be seen live online in a bid to support the cause of boycotting the show being aired on TVJ.
