Broadcasting Commission raps Flow and Digicel for ‘substandard customer service’ arising from channel changes

KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Broadcasting Commission has found Flow and Digicel in breach of their subscription television licences after concluding that their handling of channel and programming changes in late 2025 amounted to substandard customer service.According to a release on Tuesday, the commission completed its review of the programming changes and determined that the operators’ treatment of subscribers demonstrated significant shortcomings that constituted substandard customer service.The commission found that Flow relied almost exclusively on email to communicate the changes, despite its own engagement data showing that the majority of customers did not open the messages. In November 2025, 68.5 per cent of delivered emails were unopened, while 64.1 per cent were unopened in December. Some emails were also undelivered because of inactive or incorrect addresses.It further noted that website postings were passive and unreliable in a post-hurricane environment, and that Flow provided no traffic data to show that subscribers had actually viewed the notices.Digicel, meanwhile, reportedly failed to provide any prior notice regarding the removal of some channels. The company acknowledged the lapse in an apology issued to customers after the commission began its investigation.While both operators introduced new and repurposed channels, the commission said the information provided to subscribers lacked sufficient detail and objective criteria to determine whether the replacement channels were genuinely comparable and whether customer value had been preserved.As a result, Flow and Digicel have been directed to adopt robust, multi-channel communication protocols to ensure subscribers are meaningfully informed of future changes. The commission said notices must be effective rather than perfunctory and must be reasonably calculated to reach the majority of subscribers, including older people and those who are less digitally connected.The commission said the findings are significant because customer service breaches form part of each operator’s compliance record and will be taken into account in future relicensing decisions, including the terms and conditions of licences.Emphasising that operators are free to make commercial decisions about packages and channels, the Broadcasting Commission said, “The issue is not the changes themselves, but the manner in which subscribers are treated. They are entitled to clear, timely and effective communication whenever their services are altered. Subscription television operators are accountable for meeting this standard.”