Minister of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports, Olivia Grange, has raised concerns over the recent acquisition of Kingston and St Andrew-based cable operators, Entertainment Systems Limited (ESL), by multimillion-dollar company FLOW.

According to the minister, who has responsibility for the grant and revocation of cable licences, the transaction took place without ESL customers being notified of the change.

However, Jean McPherson, director of marketing at Flow, told The Gleaner yesterday that for most negotiations, the company is bound by specific confidentiality agreements. As a result, customers were not forewarned of the acquisition.

McPherson also said that immediately after the closure of negotiations, messages were posted on customers' community channels.

"We have set up meetings with various community associations within the entertainment group and we're also going to correspond with each customer by sending a courier-delivered mail just letting them know about the acquisition officially and what the next steps are," she said.

Minister Grange further said she had been in contact with the Broadcasting Commission regarding the transaction, and that the regulatory body was also not informed of the sale.

However, Flow said there was no need to gain permission from the commission as it did not gain total ownership of ESL.

athaliah.reynolds@gleanerjm.com