CIG, OfReg silent over loss of local TV

| 23/09/2019 | 22 Comments
Cayman News Service
Tammi Sulliman presents the final broadcast of Cayman 27 news

(CNS): The premier has made no move yet to fill the void left by the closure of Cayman 27 news, despite claims last month that he was going to move quickly to do so. The station has confirmed that in the month since they were forced off the air, the management has heard nothing from either the government or OfReg. CNS also contact the regulator, which said it could not comment “on specific ongoing enforcement actions” but had indicated it would make a statement after meeting with Cabinet.

OfReg had been expected to meet with Cabinet the week after the TV news station shut down on Friday 30 August. Cayman 27 had struggled to pay the regulatory fees but was also in dispute with OfReg over a number of issues, including the problem of cable channels failing to meet the local content requirement in their licence, leaving Cayman 27 to bear the costs of producing local content alone and greatly reducing it commercial viability.

The regulator has still not answered CNS enquiries about the state of a public consultation on local TV content which began under the previous regulator, the ICTA, and why the issue was proving so difficult to resolve.

In a statement following the news that Cayman 27 was being forced to stop broadcasting, the premier said he was concerned about the plug being pulled on local TV.

“The government believes that a television station that produces and broadcasts local programmes and news is a critical piece of Cayman’s information infrastructure and will immediately begin exploration as to how the void created by the closure of Cayman27 can quickly be filled,” he said.

However a month after the station went dark and the staff were made redundant, neither government nor OfReg have commented on the loss of the station or what can be done to bring back local independent television news and programming.


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Comments (22)

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  1. caymanmarlroad says:

    Who will they bail out next? Compass? CNS? I mean come on now. Randy bought a failing business and expected government to save it for him?

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  2. Anonymous says:

    I hope OfReg will be equally silent when Cayman Airways, Turtle Farm and other sap sucking entities bite the dust, maybe then they can seppuku themselves out of existence too.

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    • Anonymous says:

      The difference is they are ultimately owned by “we the people” it is our responsibility to keep them funded!

      • Rape & Privilege says:

        We the people are holding the debt of these entities, what do we get out of the deal. Owners usually collect dividends, but we have to keep shelling out and the ball and chain just keeps getting heavier!

  3. Ron Ebanks says:

    I noticed that allot of us feel that Offreg be shut down , Do anyone have any suggestions on what to do to accomplish that ??

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Why is this a government problem?

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  5. Anon says:

    Offreg is consulting with it’s consultants before issuing their statement (the consultant’s).

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  6. Anonymous says:

    Time to shut ofreg down.

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  7. Anonymous says:

    Ofreg will end up costing this country more than the dock.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Premier needs to stay home and tend to business here. Or, hopefully he is in Monaco trying to sell ofreg.

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  9. Elvis says:

    It’s a disgrace an island claiming to be the greatest in so many departments, investments, etc has no news service. Even a short 15 main news headlines show would be enough.
    Totally in the dark now. Government burying their heads again

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  10. Anonymous says:

    I’m happy Cayman 27 is off the air. The greatest irony is that it was a fake news, CIG propaganda machine. There was nothing independent about the station. They read every GIS press release like it was holy gospel.

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    • Anonymous says:

      All the news houses do that – total absence of investigative journalism.

      CNS: Investigative journalism requires resources, funding and above all time. it doesn’t just magic itself into reality.

      • Media Police says:

        CNS I totally agree and as for the idiot who is happy to see Cayman27 shut down is just that an idiot

  11. Anonymous says:

    Their plan all along was to force C27 off the air likely to replace it with CIGtv as the only regular locally produced video content
    The CIG hates the press they only want propaganda

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    • Old Tv building says:

      So it was the government plan all along to have the owners of CITN close their building they owned and go pay thousands of dollars in rent to the biggest land Lord on the island so they could not afford to pay the government it’s licensing fee?

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      • Anonymous says:

        Exactly! If you have a failing company one would think the last thing you would do is move into a studio that probably cost two or three times what is currently being paid. Bad economics if you ask me, I have to pay my. Able bill each month or my screen would go black too.

    • Anonymous says:

      Bet you that they are working really hard to get CIGTv up and running. Lets see who they will hire and let’s see what content they will be discussing… watch close Cayman.

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