When will Cable & Wireless rollout its IPTV service in the Caribbean?

Yesterday, Cable & Wireless Communications made several references to its forthcoming Caribbean IPTV rollout during the presentation of its 2009/2010 financial results. Whilst much of the discussion was focused on CWC's TV service in Panama, the rollout of TV services across the Caribbean was also mentioned on a couple of occasions, including during the Q&A's with financial analysts. It was described as one of CWC's 2010/2011 priorities on page 30 of the slides.

These comments are consistent with a press release issued last fall, in which CWC announced a partnership with U.S.-based Move Networks for a rollout of IPTV services across CWI’s global operations. Yesterday, Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT), which is owned jointly by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and CWC, announced a similar partnership with another U.S.-based IPTV provider, Calix Inc.

Entering the Caribbean TV market will not be easy for CWC. In addition to the challenges associated with securing the intellectual property rights for popular US programming, CWC will need to convince the local population that its service is superior than the grey and black market satellite services, which are currently rampant across the Caribbean. Perhaps one way to accomplish this objective is to deliver a comprehensive list of local Caribbean TV channels and to focus on IPTV's ability to deliver advanced TV services which are not available on satellite, including interactive services, VOD services and "TV Everywhere" services.