Regional media entities seek gov’t support in light of COVID, dwindling revenue
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) is appealing to policymakers and regulators across the region to suspend the collection of regulatory fees and licences for the next 12 months as a result of the impact the coronavirus (COVID-19) has had on “indigenous media in the region”.
The CBU, which held its 51st annual general meeting virtually earlier this week, said that the pandemic, which was first detected in China last December has had “significant challenges” on the continued viable operations of its members across the Caribbean.
According to a resolution adopted at the meeting, the CBU has noted that COVID-19 has “negatively affected” media houses in the region “by a significant reduction in business, which has affected their viability”.
The CBU said that in spite of this impact, indigenous media in the region have played a tremendous public service role during this pandemic even as governments and regulators, like media, “cannot predict when things will be returned to normal”.
As a result the CBU members are appealing “to media policymakers and regulators across the region to suspend the charging and collection of licence and regulatory fees for the next 12 months, in recognition of the significant additional public service being provided at no charge to the government and public health agencies”.
The resolution is one of two adopted at the meeting, with the other examining the continued changes in the global media environment.
The organisation said it has, through its ‘State of the Media’ report, “highlighted over and over again examples of decline in their advertising business” and that the “exponential growth” of high tech global entities have made their core business to access and use traditional media’s content and information through the internet, “without fair and sometimes no compensation at all”.
The CBU said that these so called “hyper-scalers” are accessing and utilising the material without permission from broadcasters and publishers, “including and specifically our content in the Caribbean” and that some of these “hyper-scalers” are not based in the region and do not pay consumption or corporate or any other taxes.
As a result, they are calling on governments and policymakers in the region “to take immediate legislative action to mandate such entities to provide equitable compensation to content producers, including media content producers”.
“The CBU calls on legislators to take steps to follow other governments elsewhere and especially the approach of Australian authorities that have created measures to secure payments from these ‘hyper-scalers’ and make a fair contribution, like other locally based businesses to the tax coffers of our countries.”
During the meeting, Jamaica-based media executive Gary Allen was returned as president of the CBU.