Online streaming service Vincyflix now available

At least one businessman is doing his part to ensure that Vincentians have an opportunity to view unique local content no matter where they are in the world.

Regis ‘Splectron’ Williams visited SEARCHLIGHT on Monday to speak about his latest business venture, Vincyflix — an online streaming service that will provide 24/7 Vincentian content to persons at home and in the Diaspora.

Williams had a soft launch for the platform, which he likens to Netflix, on New Year’s Day. He said that his idea for this local streaming service has been in the works for quite some time.

“We’ve been trying to launch our own tv station since about 2010. At that time, it would’ve been on cable. We had paid Karib Kable for a channel, but then Flow came and brought Karib Kable and they gave us back our money so that was the end of the whole cable station thing,” he said.

He said that the decision was later made to use the initial idea of having a tv station and tailor it to a mobile platform “where persons can view it on their devices instead of the old days where you have to run go home to watch tv so you could just pull out your device where ever you’re at”.

Vincyflix offers local content that is both live and pre-recorded. It features content in different categories, including religion, entertainment, politics, family and pageantry.

And it can be viewed on any mobile device via its application which can be found in the Google Playstore for Android users and App Store for Apple users. From those apps, users have the option of casting content to a bigger television screen.

“This makes it much easier for Vincentians abroad to be able to sit down and watch local content as if they are home on a big screen tv as a family like they used to do. We want to have a variety for every class and creed of Vincentians. For kids, for the mature persons like fathers, grandfathers, Christians, non Christians, party people….” Williams said.

He explained that the streaming service, which can be accessed via vincyflix.com, is a subscription based service, like Netflix. And it costs US$2 per month.

But Vincyflix is currently offering two months free so that persons can sample all that the website has to offer.

Williams also said that there are different payment options available as persons could either use their credit card to subscribe or purchase coupons for a one-month, six-month or one-year subscription.

The video producer said that in addition to offering Vincentian content, his site will also provide employment for persons locally.

“One of the aims of this network is to provide employment for artistes because after carnival finished, most artistes don’t see a dollar til next carnival season. Some of them plug out money to make music and sometimes don’t even get back a dollar,” he said. “So with this network, let’s say you have a tv show where you can invite ‘Dat C’. He comes, sit with you and is interviewed…after the interview, he gets up, does a couple performances, we give ‘Dat C’ a $400 in his hand.”

Williams said that he also wants to employ young people who have graduated and are unemployed by hiring them as videographers or editors.

And he intends to produce local movies “probably a year or two down the road”.

He issued a call for persons with ideas for tv shows to come forward so that the content can be incorporated as Vincyflix grows.

“What we want most of all is for persons to tell a friend overseas or a family member overseas…if every Vincentian who live here tell their family and friends who live overseas about the network, then it gets to reach as much persons as possible,” Williams said.