Logic accused of pirating Winter Olympics

| 20/02/2018 | 53 Comments

Cayman News Service, Winter Olympics 2018(CNS): The owner of Cayman 27, which has the exclusive rights to broadcast the 2018 Winter Olympics, has accused its rival cable firm of illegally broadcasting coverage. Having served the firm with a cease and desist order, Cayman 27 officials said Logic has now ‘blacked out’ the games. Hurley’s Media Ltd, which owns Cayman 27, said it secured the exclusive rights to air the PyeongChang Olympics in partnership with IMC (International Media Content Limited), but Logic was also showing the games on some of its channels instead of blacking them out.

Responding to the situation in a circular to its customers, Logic apologised for the frustration over the blackouts and noted that they were legally forced to comply with the cease and desist notice after broadcasting the games via NBC and CBC.

“We apologise for this inconvenience; it was not something we wanted to do here at Logic or benefit from in anyway,” the company said, adding that all other programming was still available on the channels and as soon as the Olympics are over, regular programming will continue.

Randy Merren, General Manager of Hurley’s, said that if his firm had not acquired the FTA rights, the only channel that the viewers of Cayman could legally watch the Winter Olympics on would be Sportsmax. But neither NBC nor CBC have the broadcast rights for the Cayman Islands and any cable company showing them are breaching the exclusivity rights awarded to IMC.

An advisory of these exclusive broadcast rights was first issued by IMC to all media companies in the Caribbean back in November 2017. It stated that the only authorised broadcast channels for
the 2018 Winter Olympics in the Cayman Islands is Cayman 27 and Sportsmax.

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Stream on the internet for free – why anyone is paying for TV in this day and age is very concerning.

  2. Anonymous says:

    If they are attempting to pull the same crap with the football world cup coverage, they will likely have a riot on their hand.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    This is absolutely ridiculous. In the rest of the developed world, people can watch the Olympics on numerous channels. Cayman 27 sucks big time. The audio is horrendous, the picture quality is horrendous. Honestly, it is unbelievable that one business can pretty much prevent an entire nation and the country’s visitors from watching a decent coverage of a sporting event which just occurs every 4 years. On top of that, even if I would want to switch over to use C3 as a provider, I can’t because it is not available in my area yet!!! This whole thing is utterly disgusting.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    It always takes time to get used to paying for stuff you used to steal.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    “Welcome to the Olympic Games PyeongChang 2018,” Bach said. “This is the moment we have all been waiting for.”

    “Now it is the time for PyeongChang,” he said. “Let us share this Olympic experience with the world.”

    must have been lost in translation, – the part about those being favoured in broadcasting rights…

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  6. Anonymous says:

    I’m pretty certain logic have started throttling Netflix too.

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  7. Anonymous says:

    I am sure the record number of visitors currently on island are totally impressed with the high quality of Olympic coverage they can now enjoy! Many come here to escape colder climates back home, so they are likely the kind of people who participate in, or who are interested in winter sports. I am sure they will spread the good word when they get home.

    Now its time to turn on the TV and see if they are showing a view of a stadium with nothing happening, or maybe if I am lucky, there might be some cross country skiing…

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  8. Tut alors!. says:

    Every time I tuned into Sportsmax I got curling which is about as exciting as watching BBC’s coverage of lawn bowling.Is this fiasco going to repeat itself for the real Olympics in 2020?.
    Flow is as bad as Logic, when I signed up they promised full coverage by NBC Sports (one channel was never on the air but on their list), they also listed Cayman 27 as “coming soon” – are they not guilty of misrepresention and breach of contract?.
    As someone rightly comments where is the ICTA on all of this, they are supposed to be the government watchdog on all comminications services, but it appears they spend all day gnawing their bone in front of the TV, when they are not dozing.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Curling is very exciting if you have an attention span. Your use of the term “real Olympics” says a lot about you.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Tried to watch it. Fell asleep. They need hotter women in hotter outfits.

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      • Anonymous says:

        No …. curling sucks.. why that is an Olympic sport is beyond me! And cricket isn’t ????

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        • Anonymous says:

          Cricket. Another edge of the seat sport. Add the marathon and the sport of speed paint drying and you can have your own mini- olympics for people to watch between their chess moves!!!!!!

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    • Anonymous says:

      i love curling…..one out every morning

  9. Knot S Smart says:

    Pirates of the Caribbean… I am meaning it to: All of you reading this post…

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  10. Anonymous says:

    Huh TV is a thing? Internet is way better and cheaper.

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  11. Anonymous says:

    If Randy hadn’t have bought the rights, then everyone could have watched top class coverage as nobody would have objected to the brilliant NBC and CBC coverage happening…instead, in a desperate and delusional effort to make C3 something anybody wants they splashed some cash they probably don’t have anyhow….and now very few will watch the appalling coverage…if C3 were remotely interested in providing a good service, they’d have either not bought the horrible caribbean coverage or maybe tried to work a deal with NBC/CBC (if possible)…but not this….and if someone has done this for World Cup Soccer, all hell will break loose….why do we need 3 cable providers in the Cayman Islands?! And if Digicel enter it, 4….

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    • Anonymous says:

      DART owns Hurley’s media, at least there is a strong rumour of this. This is his typical bullying tactics by splashing cash.

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    • Anonymous says:

      B) Its Hurley’s (Dart) Media, not C3
      A) In a scenario of no Cayman rights-holder the Caribbean rights-holders could still have forced all of them to stop showing the Olympics since they and their sub-rights-holders are the only ones allowed to show the Olympics in the Caribbean.
      A2) For your scenario all of the CI TV companies would have to buy the rights (perhaps as a pool). But (1) they still couldn’t show the US, etc., Olympics coverage out-of-zone (though possibly no one would complain and block the technically illegal re-broadcast), and (2) the Caribbean rights-holders might not (be able to) accept this since the general rule is ‘one broadcaster per area’.

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      • Anonymous says:

        I think the point was that it was being seen on the nbc and cbc networks regardless of ‘rights’..until Randy Dart Hurley C3 made the genius move of ruining everything…

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        • Anonymous says:

          until Randy Dart Hurley made the brilliant move or protecting his investment you mean. No one stopped C3/Logic/Whoever from buying the rights instead. But they didn’t. Because (like not showing local programming of their own) they don’t care about doing things right.

  12. Anonymous says:

    I appreciate that Hurley’s media paid a lot of money for the rights and want to protect their investment. However, their Olympic coverage sucks

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    • Anonymous says:

      Winter Olympics sucks period. The only good part are all the fails and spills. If anyone says they watch if for any other reason apart from the crashes they’re a liar!

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      • Anonymous says:

        Well if you are ignorant of the skills involved and have the limited attention span of a caveman that might be your view of the Winter Olympics.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Why do we assume they paid a lot of money? Maybe it was cheap. We don’t know the amount.

  13. Kettle and Pot says:

    So let me get this straight.

    1) Cayman 27/Weststar TV, who pirated channels and broadcasted them for money for years, has now accused Logic of doing the same thing.

    Well if thats not a case of kettle calling the pot.

    Anyways, I have my Dishnetwork so I get to watch the games as much as I want. They cant stop that.

    Only in Cayman. Only in Cayman.

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  14. Anonymous says:

    This isn’t a victory for Hurleys Media. The ime Olympics coverage is an unwatchable selective highlight reel narrated by a Trinidadian Siri. In some cases there isn’t even audio! This will backfire hard. Cayman Olympic Committee should be involved in this discussion too, because it will ultimately impact donor dollars.

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    • Anonymous says:

      If you give the CIOC even a penny of your hard earned money the. You deserve exactly what you get. Ask them for their audited financial statements. I dare you.

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  15. Anonymous says:

    I can hear the cords cutting on both side.

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  16. Anonymous says:

    Where were the ICTA on this, you either have broadcast rights or you don’t. If you don’t – you’re pirating…. it’s not difficult to understand, even for logic and the ICTA

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  17. Anonymous says:

    Like most people, I’m barely interested in the Winter Olympics. But I tuned up to Cayman 27 a couple times and there was no audio, just video.

    Thankfully both NBC and CBC are available over the internet with VPN.

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  18. Anonymous says:

    So why does Flow offer the Olympics for $24.99 extra?

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  19. Anonymous says:

    In the meantime we can’t follow the games anymore.
    Thank you caymanians business. We know better now were your priorities are.

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  20. Anonymous says:

    Hey Randy…it’s called the internet!

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  21. Anonymous says:

    So the games aren’t really for everyone, just those tied in with paying the most for broadcast rights. Money, money, money, – new Olympic endurance sport, those comforting in the fattest, plushest recliners win.

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    • Anonymous says:

      you’re not serious are you? Let’s say you bid for something on eBay, paid a lot of $$$ for it. Would you be fine with one of your enemies piggy backing on your purchase and offering it to all of your friends? Didn’t think so. It’s how TV broadcasting works bo bo

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      • Anonymous says:

        You deliberately miss the point…the Olympics are supposed to be for everyone. Why should Cayman 27’s choice to show absolute crap coverage affect anyone’s right to enjoy it? They must have paid the lowest price, and it shows…me, I watch it on the internet…stop that Mr. Merren if you can. It does mean that my respect for Hurleys has dropped through the floor.

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        • Anonymous says:

          I’m not even going to buy groceries from Randy anymore …SMH

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        • Anonymous says:

          Its not Randy personally doing this because he’s a grinch. This is the way the Olympics is marketed/broadcast around the world. (Its why its only on one station in America for example. Same with the UK.) Yes its not in the best interest of the users but its the way the media industry works to maximize profits. Remember region-locked DVDs?

      • Anonymous says:

        It was a dumb strategy, everybody has access to Internet TV and they use it. I’m getting full coverage for free ?

  22. Anonymous says:

    I’m sure Randy was having a “hold my beer and watch this” moment but this is an interesting can of worms he has opened up here.

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