Local TV drops Island24 in favour of weather

| 10/10/2011

(CNS): Local viewers who don’t subscribe to WestStar TV’s paid cable service will lose their free entertainment channel next month when the TV stationswitches off Island 24. On cable the channel will be replaced with a non-stop weather channel — Cayman Weather 24/7 which viewers watching the free over the air television service will not be able to pick up. Cayman 27 is also receiving a HD upgrade and construction work began at the television centre this week.

A team of broadcast engineers are overseeing a complete overhaul of Cayman 27’s broadcast equipment and all of Cayman 27 shows including Daybreak, Cayman 27 News programmes, and the talk shows will be broadcasting digitally in high definition by the first week of November officials from the station said.

General Manager, Mike Martin said viewers will see some temporary changes during the construction phase. “Daybreak is on location at the Ritz Carlton, all news programmes will be live from the newsroom, and talk shows are being pre-taped to facilitate changing out equipment and updating the studio,” he added

WestStar customers can watch Cayman 27 in standard definition on channel 27, and subscribers to WestStar’s HD service can watch in high definition on channel 327. Viewers that receive the signal free over-the-air will still be able to watch channel 27 as usual, the firm said.

The TV station also stated that many of the shows once aired on Island 24 wil now switch to Cayman27. See details of the new schedule below.

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Out of curiosity to Westar, is the channels provided to paying customers properly sourced?

    I've noticed for some time but more frequently over this past weekend some of the channels were not working and the screen said "contact your dish network".

    If you are getting a "bulk" rate from dish network surely you can keep running Cayman 24 for us.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Please leave channel 24 the way it is!

    I pay for the complete Westar package and I appreciate being able to watch the shows featured on this channel.

    A valued customer

  3. Anonymous says:

    WestStar just keep Island24. A 24-hour channel for Cayman Islands weather will be the most boring channel on the planet.

     

     

  4. Anonymous says:

    There are many low income persons in Cayman who can not afford to pay for Cable TV. and loved having chanel 24 to watch.   Why do we new two weather stations? If is is to save money then put on Headline News.  This is very unkind thing to do.

    Please review your actions.

  5. Anonymous says:

    What absolute, utter hogwash… who came up with this idea????  Considering Caymans' weather is pretty much the same all the time, this is foolishness.

    No-one pays any attention to John Foster anyway… he is just there – like the weather … lets replace him with a bit of eye candy at least…

    If there is a hurricane coming, there is so much up to date information out there I reckon Cayman 27 would be that last place you would look… the ting would have come and gone by the time JF felt the breeze!!

     

  6. Anonymous says:

    Daybreak is on location from the RITZ?! Well excuse me! They sure know how to spend $ this year. Ripping us off must be nice. (n)

  7. Anonymous says:

    So now we're losing Hockey Night in Canada!? The only time we need weather 24/7 is when there's a storm coming our way. Otherwise, LEAVE ISL24 ALONE! If not for those who don't have cable, for those to love Hockey Night in Canada!

  8. Anonymous says:

    When the hell is Infinity going to launch?????? Hope they can deliver an alternative tv and internet service…. Fed up of getting ripped off on this island!

  9. Anonymous says:

    Westar listen to your customers!

    We don't need a channel dedicated to weather our weather doesn't change much and if we have severe weather then its usually covered on this channel, the weather channel & every other major network. 

    Keep channel 24 the way it is!!! if not I'll be getting a dish!

  10. Anonymous says:

    Did anybody get their most recent bill from Weststar TV? They now sock you with a $2.00 charge for not paying your bill on line. How cheap and despicable can you get? Also, for a whole day last week we lost channels 312, 316, and 321 (the Canadian channels). Have we been sent an apology or given a rebate by Weststar? Have a guess.

    • Sick of Weststar says:

      Channel 43 was also out for days and I'm sure there won't be any sort of rebate.  And does it tick anyone else off that so many of the channels have spanish commercials?  I don't like commercials but I'd at least like to understand what I'm watching. 

      Has anyone else been watching tv and got a message stating that the dish network bill hadn't been paid so the channel was turned off?  It's almost funny… almost.

      I know everyone has to make money, but lets be serious now…  I have a subscription for the full cable package and I know I pay way too much.  I think the amount that they "steal" from me should be enough to cover the free channel 24.  Seriously, 24 hours of Cayman Weather… does John Foster own Weststar? 

      Hopefully someone else will come in and give Weststar some competition soon!

  11. Anonymous says:

    switch to dish network..why bother with this crap?

    • Bigger picture- no pun, well yes! says:

      Here is a bigger picture:

      With your existing Internet and only $8 per month you can TV stream Hulu or NetFlicks.  Bummer WestStar, you can't fight city hall and the world is going Internet.  By killing channel 24 for the poor and elderly people who cannot afford your expensive cable tv, you only come off as insenstive horrid bullies.

      I'm going to kill my cable subscrition and ask my IT guru to hook me up with Netflicks and Hulu.

       

  12. TV picture says:

    For those of you who hve elderly familes still on LIME (most residents) ask your local computer supplier to bump plug in the Internet TV.

    HULU.COM and Net Flicks too!

    XXXX

  13. Anon says:

    We love our dish network!

  14. Patricia X says:

    Never watched it, so no great loss.

  15. Anonymous says:

    24 hour cayman weather channel……is this some kind of joke??? …have you watched john fosters efforts at weather forcasting????? he spends more time talking about us weather than cayman!

    unless there is a hurricane on the way…..caymanian weather can be summed up in a few words for the entire year…….. sunny spells with a chance of showers……..

  16. Anne says:

    Why do you need a weather channel anyway?

    Just look out of the window.

  17. Anonymous says:

    Weather?? you got to be kidding me …boring!!!!!

  18. Anonymous says:

    I will be sticking to satellite tv it is far superior to Weststar TV.

  19. Anonymous says:

    This is disgraceful,but they have a monopoly so they do as they please.Why do we need another weather channel when we already haveThe Weather Channel on Cable channel 31. I believe this action constitutes a breach of the original franchise agreement. If memory serves me correctly, there were three franchises granted in the early nineteen nineties.Each franchise holder was required to provide at least two free ,over the air channels and at least ten cable channels.Weststar TV eventually incorporated two of these franchises (CITN & CTS) into one package.That would mean Weststar should be providing at least four free over the air channels (not one ,as will be the case once Channel 24 is removed).Perhaps awarding another Tv franchise will get Weststar back on the right track.. In the meantime they should try to address problems with the present service or lack thereof.At present there are about five cable channels offline (142 to 146) for over a week with no info being provided by Weststar. Also every night just around 2 o'clock a several channels go off the air for about 4 hrs,with a notice to press select to get tv;only problem is that pressing this button has no effect. I hope Lime will enter the Tv market and give them a run for their money.(Lime already has fibreoptic cables installed in George Town,so I guess they could start there).So Lime ,how about it? Perhaps you could inquire about the third franchise that was originally awarded.A little competition could be just what the doctor ordered.

    • Anonymous says:

      Not to mention that every morning between 8A-830A the channels jump and/or stops altogether.

      It shut down completely on channel 34 or 35 the other night (prime time tv) right in the middle of a movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

      Cuts to local advertisements in the middle of a news segment. Then comes back to the program and cuts again for the regular programmed commercials.

      Not the most professional professionals in what they do, eh!!

      Would be great if they read the comments on every article about themselves on CNS and ADDRESSED THE PROBLEMS AND COMPLAINTS!!!!!

      But why should they when they have the market??

      And you can't compare satellite as something better when I had that for 3 months and it was shut down more than it was in operation…

       

       

  20. Anonymous says:

    Please don't take away the shows on Cayman 24.

    We already have the Weather channel & all the networks cover weather. It's nice to have the Canadian channel.

     

    Pleae reconsider this!

    • Awful says:

      Wow Big ol mean Westar is AWFUL!!!   Come on, just how much does this money making powerhouse actually need to keep Cayman24 on the air?  It is the only TV entertainment for the many people who can no longer afford cable TV.  Talk about hittin gthe public when they are down.

      ICTA, Govt, **someone stand up for the poor and elderly whocannot afford cable TV.  

      If ANYTHING….the education "super readers!" in the morning from CBC (Canada) helps some poor children that are not going to school and there are a lot of kids out there.  

      At 9:00AM the elderly get Dr. Oz and his health tips.  I do not know the whole schuedule, but it is pretty G rated and PG rated.  

      This FREE programming is for the people and WESTSTAR TV MUST BE FORCED TO ADHEAR TO THEIR LICENSE.

      This is a company without real competition who is going to take away our poor and elderly's free TV.  This is just wrong!!!

       

      • notagain:::8 says:

        Weststar  is the lamest excuse as to cable TV. I tried them and must tell you that I lost my temper every day with them, lousy service, repeat  programs on two channels at the same time.   NOW the hardest pill to swallow is the one where they just started charging you    $2.00 TO PRINT YOUR BILL, BECAUSE THEY ARE GOING GREEN. What about the people that do not have computers to be able  to see their bills each month. Anyy way to rob the public, I hope they see what 's happening to NETFLIX with their greed.

        I think every one should cancel weststar , and CUC, we  should all turn off the power for one day and send a message to the greedy .So sick of the mess now.

  21. Anonymous says:

    Great.  So if I am reading right those of us who cannot afford WestTel's expensive cable service in addition to paying rent, utilities and putting food on the table are going to be left with pretty much nothing to watch on our TV's.  Personally I think its disgusting.

  22. Anonymous says:

    LIME and Affinity will be available in 2012 and Wesstar and their crappy system will be history by 2014!!!