By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Cable Bahamas will introduce a late payment fee of $1.45 for its six-channel universal service (USO) TV package, in a bid to satisfy a condition set by the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) for approving its 27 per cent basic pay-TV increase.

David Burrows, Cable Bahamas’ marketing chief, told Tribune Business that the $1.45 fee - a near 75 per cent reduction to its normal $5.50 per month late fee - was “proportionate” to the $10 USO package price.

URCA, in approving Cable Bahamas’ application, rejected the company’s plans to levy the same $5.50 monthly late fee on USO package subscribers on the basis that is was equivalent to more than half the monthly fee, and therefore disproportionate.

It then made its approval conditional on Cable Bahamas fulfilling several terms and conditions, chiefly the requirement for the BISX-listed communications provider to submit, within 30 days, a lower late payment fee for the six-channel USO package.

Mr Burrows told Tribune Business: “One of the things URCA did request is that we look at the rate for the late fee for the USO, and we are going to be introducing a rate of $1.45 for the late fee, which is proportionate to the $5.50 for the $38 for the basic service.”

URCA, after a four-year wait on Cable Bahamas’ part, granted the $8 and $14 monthly price increases for basic TV residential and business consumers, respectively, on New Year’s Eve.

Mr Burrows said the rate increase approval would allow the BISX-listed provider to make its TV package more attractive to subscribers.

He added: “In two months it would make 21 years that we have been in business and running on the same rates. We launched with a 34-channel package at $30 a month, and we now have a 53-channel package at $30 a month.

“During that time, signal costs increased between 3-5 per cent annually. It’s a tremendous burden to sustain. Customers want to know why the package can’t be better. Now we have the ability to innovate, add more channels into the package and to make it much more attractive to our subscriber base. That’s a very important thing. You can’t innovate without resources,” said Mr Burrows.

“This is a fifth time that we have gone after an increase. I think that URCA did a very good thing by laying out what the guidelines would be, and saying that 10.89 per cent is a reasonable rate of return you should get. We are way below that but, on February 8, that will change.”