The Tribune

By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net 

ZNS has the acquired the rights to stream the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Charles Russell, assistant general manager for TV administration, confirmed this information to The Tribune yesterday. 

“We got our rights directly through FIFA and we’ve taken our feed through Eurovision,” Mr Russell said. 

When asked about costs, Mr Russell confirmed that coverage of the World Cup will be free and accessible for both viewers with cable and without.

Viewers without cable can watch the events on channel 13.

“We will be broadcasting…from June 14 through the end, July 15,” Mr Russell added.

“We’re going to be promoting it as of next week.”

The 2014 World Cup games were aired locally by Cable Bahamas. However, the company sparked controversy that year following its decision to black out free coverage of the games on two of its basic cable channels.

The 2014 games aired June 12 to June 13. Just after Croatia scored the opening goal against Brazil, CBC, which is a fixture on basic cable, went black. 

A message indicating that there was no authorisation for the World Cup to be provided on the channel showed almost immediately.

The message asked for subscribers to call Cable Bahamas’ offices to have the channel activated at a cost of $9.95. It would be included in the REVTV Prime Sports Package.

David Burrows, then Cable Bahamas marketing director, told The Tribune on June 12, 2014 that the company had to black out the channels because it would have been illegal for them to air the World Cup on them, as they had no authorisation for games to be aired on those stations. 

“We just legally cannot show the World Cup on CBC and ABC,” he said at the time.

“If you would notice, every single feed comes from FIFA. No company wants FIFA coming down on their head.” 

Criticism also poured in regarding the poor quality of the coverage on the purchased channels.

Nonetheless, by June 16, less than four days later, Cable Bahamas had added an estimated 800-900 subscribers to its sports package.