BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – CaribVision, the Caribbean Media Corporation’s global television channel, featuring regional news, sports and cultural programming, was officially launched Tuesday night with Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur underscoring its importance to regional integration.
Arthur told a live television audience and broadcasters, entertainers, independent television producers and business partners attending the launch at CMC’s Barbados headquarters, that Caribbean integration efforts like the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy would not be possible without an authentic Caribbean voice to tell Caribbean stories to the people of the region.
“It is no doubt the creation of CaribVision would cause us to be better informed and enlightened about Caribbean affairs. It is to be expected that it will also cause us to be better entertained,” Arthur said.
Arthur, Prime Minister with lead responsibility for the CSME, compared the initiative to Caribbean institutions like the West Indies Cricket team and the University of the West Indies which have distinguished themselves as symbols of regional integration.
He said the West Indies Federation failed because there was not a regional medium to take messages to Caribbean people and said he hoped CaribVision’s programme would remove some of the xenophobia prevailing in certain quarters by giving the region’s people first hand information about themselves.
CaribVision is a cooperative venture between CMC, regional and US partners.
These include CBC of Barbados; TV6 of Trinidad and Tobago; CVM, TVJ and CPTC of Jamaica; ICRT, Cuba; ZNS, Bahamas; Soundview Broadcasting of New York and many independent producers around the region.
The channel is currently aired in Antigua, Anguilla, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Dominica, St. Eustatius, US Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands and St Vincent and the Grenadines.