PART THREE: CASE STUDY 2. Joining Forces: The Caribbean Broadcasting Union

Another Indicator raised in the methodology is that of an increase in local programming. The history of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) showed that media executives in the Caribbean were weary of foreign programming long before the arrival of Cable Television, its dominance and exposure to foreign content. Black Power Movement of the late sixties to early seventies taught Caribbean people the value of using and promoting all things local. Maintaining this sentiment was difficult especially when it came to producing local TV programs.

The Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) was officially inaugurated on fifth day of November 1970. Originally, radio was its primary concern. The television branch evolved after the 1973 General Assembly in Trinidad, and after the Dutch Caribbean Television Station were admitted to the Union. The noted pioneers of the TV branch of the CBU were Farouk Mohammed (TTT-Trinidad), Tino Barovier (JBC- Jamaica), Keith Foster (CBC- Barbados), George Neman (Netherlands Antilles TV), and Fritz Rengel (Surinam TV). It was this first group which planned and organized the annual Caribbean Film Market, facilitated the joint purchase of programs, and exhibited to the Caribbean and international viewers the best of regional TV productions. Keith Foster of Barbados organized the first Film Market in 1975.   Others followed in Surinam (1976) Curacao (1977) and Nassau (1978). Mr. Foster later received the Divi Divi Award from the Netherlands for his contributions.

By 1981, a full secretariat was stationed in Barbados. From that location, the Union organized training programs for management, media practitioners and programming and engineering personnel. According to Michael Abend (1991), the Freidrich- Ebert-Stiftung (FES) consultant to the Caribbean Broadcasting Union, the CBU proved many researchers wrong. He argued against the 1987 autumn report Caribbean Voices, Caribbean Images published by Canadian media expert Evan Browne. Browne’s, study confirmed the findings of many previous reports that the Caribbean was culturally penetrated by extremely high percentage of imported television programs and concluded that “if action is not taken, Caribbean culture, politics, and its vey independence could be jeopardized”.

In addition, Browne opined that the Caribbean Broadcasting Union was not adequately structured to attempt program-sharing or pool organization in order to increase local and regional content of television program. However, Abend (1991) asserted that a television news exchange was already on its way in 1986 long before Browne’s 1987 report. By then the Caribbean was no longer defined as the English and Dutch-speaking territories. The CBU recognized and opened membership to the French and Spanish television stations. The French version of programs began distribution in Martinique and Cayenne and a weekly exchange was also established with Cuba.

In less than four years the Union was successful in the production and regional sharing of daily satellite news exchange, CARIBVISION, the daily Caribbean Evening News which was distributed via satellite from St. Lucia and the weekly television magazine, CARIBSCOPE. The Union also initiated a monthly cultural and entertainment program Caribbean Night, the cultural series Caribbean Eye and the social talk show Nisus. There were special programs on major regional events, jointly produced and distributed region-wide via satellite.

There was also program exchange among Caribbean television stations as well as between the African Broadcasting partners. According to Abend (1991), “no costly new organization was needed just some people with a clear vision, a strong will and a lot of patience”. The CBU, dubbed by Browne as the “not adequately structured” was the only institution that was designing, organizing and pushing forward Caribbean television in collaboration with its members. CBU achieved all this with some support from international institutions in terms of funding and know-how (CARIBNEWS, 1991).

In keeping with the dependency trend on foreign assistance, CBU received help from German based foundation, the Friedrich-Ebert- Stiftung. The support of the Friedrich-Ebert- Stiftung (FES) was overwhelming and far more substantial than the contributions (if any) of all the region’s governments or agencies put together.

The absence of creative ways to fund important local and regional television  programs resulted in many missed opportunities.  For example, Caribbean Common Market (CARICOM) heads of government at the 1991 summit in St. Kitts, agreed to establish a regional network before the Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA) 1992 independent of the input of CBU. This never materialize. Their biggest problem was to secure region wide satellite distribution (Abend 1992). Just imagine; the festival for the arts and the heads of government summit of 1992 were held in Trinidad and Tobago. The intension was to transmit these events to the region. However, the national television station had no uplink to a satellite that could be received by all countries in the Caribbean common market (CARICOM). To accomplish transmission the local Telecom Company (TSTT) had to transmit the programs via the Intelsat-bird.

Teleglobe in Canada linked the signal down. Then, that signal was re- uploaded to the American Domestic Satellite, Galaxy 6. With the help of the CBU and an overall coverage cost above US $50,000, they pulled it off. Talk about going around the world to meet a local need! Again, a foreign agency, but this time working with the Caribbean people to produce their own Caribbean programs in their own voice.

The production department of the CBU contained two editing studios with a recording room, one dubbing and conversion room, a workshop, a video archive, and a meeting/training room with preview facilities. The Union obtained Betacam equipment and a Flying Editing Suite. The CBU hoped to have fiber optic links with the local Telecom Company (BET) in Barbados, for direct receiving and transmitting of satellite programs.

By the dawn of 2000, the CBU merged with the Caribbean News Agency (print and radio) to form the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC). CMC serves as a clearinghouse for Caribbean regional news and current affairs and entertainment programming. The flagship programs are CANA News and CaribVision.

The CMC describes CaribVision as a 24/7 cable channel. Launched in 2006, CaribVision now airs in over 22 Caribbean territories, the USA (New York Tri-State Area: New York, New Jersey and Connecticut), the providences of Ontario and Quebec in Canada and the United Kingdom. CaribVision features Caribbean Passport, regional sports and current affairs programs.

From CBU to CMC, the conditions remained the same. Despite the small increase in local television production, it is true to assert that cable television resulted in a decrease in local television programs in the Caribbean region. The increase in foreign cable television negatively affected the production of local television program in the Caribbean. Generally, the earlier argument that foreign cultural material via cable television would undermine attempts to build a Caribbean culture and pose significant threat to the Caribbean cultural identity (Hosein, 1976), were not ill-founded. Media scholars and proponents of the dependency theory opined that foreign cable television enable the flourishing of cultural imperialism or cultural dependency in the Caribbean. The Caribbean remains among the “have-nots” menaced by the expansion of modern electronic communication, television in particular, that emanates from a few power centers in the industrialized world mainly the United States of America.

The governments of the Caribbean region are keenly aware of the need for more local programs but still feel that it is not their job. Seemingly, governments want to remain in power, benefit from media license sales, collect levy and taxes and make minimal contribution to the education and information of the masses via television. Contentedly, they continue to rely on their limited Information Service Programs that are low cost, and heavily biased. When governments collaborate with private sector, much is achieved. For example, CBU archival records showed that in the week preceding the CARICOM summit, August 22-28, 1992, the Union mustered eleven and a half hours of local/regional television programming. Satellite costs were over US$2,500 per hour. This was possible because all island systems pulled their weight and shared the costs.

I believe that the media have been and always will be overwhelmed by foreign programming because cost of producing local program is high. The public desire for what is close to home, for things with which the targeted local audience can identify will also remain. While there will always be a strong case for more local programs over foreign ones, this may never become a reality. Nonetheless, I believe that the issue of Caribbean programming is too serious to become another West Indian Federation scenario of one from 10 leaves 0, nor should it be a matter for political play. There is no room for duplication of efforts and it is unlikely that a single agency will ever have the ability to provide the Caribbean with the amount of local television programs needed. This is why the merger between CBU and CANA is timely and well placed. I hope that this amalgamation will ensure sustainability and marketability of the Caribbean media product. Yet the challenge to increase local fare remains. Without a doubt, the region must stick together and continue to share programming. Many media programming outfits around the world are looking for program content that is new, fresh. I believe the Caribbean has that to offer.

It is not the business of the governments of the Caribbean to engage themselves in the control of regional television. However, governments should support the efforts of the existing systems by fulfilling for them one of their major obligations – educating the masses and bringing the Caribbean closer to the reality of cultural and economic unity. Governments should consider abandoning levy on satellite cost and leverage negotiations for satellite cost as well as investment in training of media practitioners.