Headlines:
| CMC faces uncertain future |
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| Wednesday, 31 December 2008 | |
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The regional media house Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC)
and its Caribbean cable channel, CaribVision,
face an uncertain future going into the New Year. The board met Wednesday in Bridgetown Barbados and crafted a plan to seek $US500,000 in short term financing to maintain the company's operations while it seeks a longer term financial solution. In September, the Corporation announced that under the pressure of increasing costs and the burden of having to finance the channel entirely on its own, it has accumulated millions of dollars losses. As a result significant cut-backs in its operations had to be undertaken to forestall closure. In November the CMC presented a proposal to CARICOM seeking financial support for the sustaining of CaribVision. The CARICOM Secretariat agreed to seek $US50,000 from each CARICOM Government in an effort to finance CMC's operations until end of first quarter of 2009. To date, little, if any, of this funding has materialized. The CMC was formed in 2000 by the Caribbean Broadcasting Union and the Caribbean News Agency CANA. In 2006 the company took a bold step in launching the region's first Caribbean channel, CaribVision. The CMC also pioneered daily television news services and current affairs coverage across the region. |