The most recent agreement between the US and Cuba in the field of telecommunications is aimed at disseminating information on the island, as intended by the policy designed by the administration of President Barack Obama, but to bring Cuban television to Americans.
According to Fox Business News reported, a new channel called CubaNetwork-affiliated Caribbean Broadcasting Network-, distribute content produced in Cuba possibly from April 2016 through cable and satellite, ” the first major partnership between [a company] public and private of Cuba and the United States, “Keith told that string Bass, executive director of the channel.
The new regulations promulgated by the Obama administration in January and extended in September, allowing US companies doing business in the area of telecommunications with Cuban companies, even if they state, as in the case of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT), although the report does not mention the name Cuban company with which the agreement was signed.
Investors, among which are senior executives of Wall Street, have paid a millionaire sum for the exclusive distribution rights of the Cuban programs in the US. The profits will be shared with the Cuban government in a proportion that was not disclosed.
While Cubans on the island resort to “package” -the compendium series, foreign films and documentaries that circulates increasingly across the island through memories flash and can be purchased for $ 2 per week-as choice of entertainment and information, investors expect there CubaNetwork US market for Cuban television, especially among Americans who want to travel or do business on the island, so part of the programming will be entirely in English or subtitled.
Among the Cubans abroad, are not few who still consume television Cuban, many motivated by nostalgia or keep in touch with the culture and sport in their country of origin.
On YouTube, more than a video with instructions for installing “Cuban antenna” which for capturing the satellite signal Hispasat1D, which transmits to the northern hemisphere TV channels like Tele Rebelde, the sports channel where Cuban baseball games are.
Other channels popular with Cubans abroad YouTube are those who transmit the time soap operas or programs humorous-Cuba traditionally critics as “Living the story” a sharp portrait of the hardships retirees who spend in Cuba, key comedy.
The Fox journalist and author of the report, Charles Gasparino said in a transmission chain that actually know how Cuban television. Here are some comments of Cubans viewers themselves, who for years have complained of repetition and the quality of some programs produced on the island, with very few resources:
“If really the managers of the TV read what they think viewers about television and its programming have a little dignity and asked the sector down … I do not know how many years been trying the same case of poor quality of programming and general dissatisfaction There is the matter, “writes a viewer identified as Carlos Rodriguez, on the website of the ICRT own
Another writes on the website of the official newspaper Granma .
“Cuban television has a poor quality. They cling to want to make it educational, informative and so cause is rejection. They do not realize that 80% of Cubans practically what they see foreign programs are recorded ??? That’s sad, that such a large business like TV is alien to this country. A media law in Cuba, to provide rights to the filmmakers, to protect them from censorship, which allows young people are who do most of the work “is needed.
The Cuban television is subsidized by the state and its information system is controlled by the Communist Party as well as the rest of the media. For years there were only two channels. Now there are five, two of them educational. Much of the news contents are taken from media allied countries as Venezuela (Telesur), Russia (RT) China (CCTV) and Iran (HispanTV).
It was not always so. “The Cuban television on 50 was the most developed in Latin America. The first countries that had television were Brazil, Mexico and Cuba in 1950. Of the three, Cuba is the country that develops the average much faster. By 1953, Cuba had five TV stations. That’s incredible, “says Yeidy Rivero, professor at the University of Michigan and author of Broadcasting Modernity. Cuban TV Commercial, 1950-1960
Bass said the new channel will mainly cultural programs, travel and sports, in an attempt to evade the high politicization of Cuban television, although the report also mentions a plan for a morning-style with big US chains program.
However, the political content of television on the island is not limited to the news, because since 1960, when the nationalization of all commercial channels are completed, the medium is considered as an educational and propaganda. Soap operas, for example, if they are set in contemporary times, should spun carefully their plots to avoid irritating the censors and there are issues such as the life of the families of Fidel Castro or the repression of opponents, who never reach the screen, even in fiction.
“Despite the support that issued the commercial television to the revolution in 1959, Fidel Castro, for example, was always on television,” said Rivero, 1960 “which dominates is a kind of political didactic television. It becomes a means to educate citizens to be revolutionary and present the progress of the revolution. “
This agreement would allow the dilapidated state television get the financing they need to modernize and produce new programs fill the “programming schedule”, for which it has had to resort to the retransmission of old series and soap operas.
One, “Passion and Prejudice” produced in 1992, was passed in December, when the 17th was interrupted at noon to Raul Castro read the statement announcing the exchange of the three Cuban spies and the decision to establish diplomatic relations with the United States. At the end Castro, the Beatriz and Marcos returned to the screen lovers. Everything returned to normal.
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