REGULATORS have ordered Cable Bahamas to pay a fine and compensate customers after the company replaced eight television channels without giving the required notice.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) said it had published a final determination and an order was issued to Cable Bahamas, which was said to be in breach of certain conditions of its licence.

URCA said that Cable Bahamas had “failed or refused to provide customers with a minimum notice of one month before implementing the changes”, that it has provided customers with information that was not accurate or true, that it had failed or refused to publish all non-price terms and conditions for a service on its website and that it had failed or refused to display on its website accurate information on all aspects for subscribing to a service.

The ruling relates to a move by Cable Bahamas on June 14 this year, when it replaced eight television channels – USA, Freeform, TV Land, Sprout, Nicktoons, Hallmark, Independent Film Channel and the Tennis Channel – from its REV TV line-up.

At the time, Cable Bahamas, responding to a complaint on its Facebook page, said: “Please note that no provider can legally carry the Hallmark Channel in The Bahamas and REV has to abide by the licensing agreements”.

URCA has ordered Cable Bahamas to pay a fine equal to 1.25 percent of the total revenues from the Prime, Prime Extra and Prime Sports packages for the month of June, to be paid by no later than December 21.

It has also been ordered to compensate customers with a bill credit. Subscribers to Prime would receive $4, Prime Extra $6 and Prime Sports $2. Each credit is cumulative. The compensation must be paid within 60 days of December 6, 2019.