Flow Sports, the new Caribbean pay-television channel owned by telecommunications company Cable & Wireless, has commenced operations, providing the region with its first Caribbean-based high-definition sports network.
The new channel is available in Flow’s Basic TV package and will broadcast in Antigua, Barbados, the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Trinidad.
Flow TV has been engaged in a rights drive to build up its sports portfolio ahead of the launch of Flow Sports and landed two major contracts last month. Flow acquired exclusive live rights for football’s Fifa World Cup qualifiers in the region and will show coverage of matches from the Concacaf (North and Central America and Caribbean) markets ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Cable & Wireless has also agreed a three-season deal for the exclusive rights in the Caribbean to football’s English Premier League. CWC’s deal with the Premier League runs from 2016-17 to 2018-19 and covers 32 Caribbean countries. International Media Content, the owner of pay-television broadcaster SportsMax, has been the league’s long-term rights-holder in the region, with its current contract running from 2013-14 to 2015-16.
In addition to the best regional and international football, initial cricket programming on Flow Sports will include home games of South Africa and its domestic Ram Slam Twenty20 tournament; New Zealand home series and the T20 Bangladesh Premier League featuring West Indies stars Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine and Darren Sammy.
Flow Sports will also deliver exclusive NFL American football regular-season games, athletics, auto racing, Fed and Davis Cup tennis and rugby union content. In addition, Flow Sports will be C&W’s key broadcast platform for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. In the coming months Flow will be expanding the Flow Sports offering across mobile platforms via the Flow ToGo application.
“With Flow Sports we are changing the game,” John Reid, president of Cable & Wireless’s Consumer Group, which operates the Flow brand, said. “Our goal is to be the number one destination for sports fans in the Caribbean. With our recently announced content partnerships – including 2016-17 Premier League football, Concacaf World Cup qualifiers, and the Rio Olympics – Flow Sports will offer our customers the best possible viewing experience of the content that they are truly passionate about.”