Hi Everyone
On Friday 24th August 2017, the Honourable Minister of Public Administration and Communications, Maxie Cuffie held a press conference at which he announced that CNMG would be dissolved and replaced by a new public service broadcaster reprising the name TTT. In that same press conference he also referenced communication with FILMCO and a model we proposed, and he alluded to the possibility that this could form the basis upon which TTT would operate. Since then, a great deal of discussion and information has been circulated on the internet and through social media. We want to share with you what has transpired and how we became involved.
FILMCO met with Minister Cuffie on August 22nd, to discuss an ongoing impasse with CNMG. In that meeting we shared with him the fact that we had done a substantial amount of work in a series of standing meetings with CNMG’s previous CEO, Julian Rogers and other members of staff to create a schedule for CTV which had local and Caribbean content on television daily during prime time (day and night time), and that we had reached agreement on a series of proposed licensing fees and license periods.
During that time (June-October 2016), over 80 independent producers from Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean and diaspora were contacted with a view to licensing content for CTV – focusing, in the first instance, on scheduling the first three-month cycle of content after which CNMG would have a fulsome list of content creators with whom they would continue to communicate, build relationships, and continue to license content. These negotiations reached an advanced stage with many filmmakers agreeing to license their projects. In addition, an actual schedule was developed and a launch event planned for September 2016. However, much to our frustration, having come within weeks of launching this new content approach, there was a change in management at CNMG, and our plan was all but discarded by the new CEO, Wendell Constantine.
In 2017, we lobbied for a reopening of discussions on our local content recommendations, believing that we had been treated with scant regard for the extent of the work we had done at no cost to CNMG. After an exchange of letters between FILMCO and CNMG with little progress, we reached out to Minister Cuffie for guidance and clarification as well as to propose a way forward for CNMG. This meeting was granted on 22nd August as outlined above.
During our meeting, it became clear that Minister Cuffie was aware of much of what had been done in developing these new content cycles for CNMG, and the Minister, making no promises as to an outcome, committed to raising our concerns during the next Cabinet meeting (carded for August 23rd). So we were as shocked as everyone else to learn that CNMG would be dissolved immediately, and replaced by TTT.
This being said, we were heartened to learn, during the Minister’s press conference, that the new TTT would be a non-competitive entity, mandated as a public service broadcaster with a focus on local content. In our press release dated August 25th, we stated:
‘Public television’s primary mission is public service. The new TTT must be mandated to reflect and promote the spirit and sense of multicultural richness and history of Trinidad and Tobago. Investment in public television is an investment in the national economy: the expenditure will filter through all sectors (including fashion, music, food, travel, hospitality, transport, film and television, construction and more) providing employment, building infrastructure and creating downstream industries. Public television will boost our sense of national identity and pride, create intellectual and creative capital and social awareness.’
The new TTT must embrace the myriad benefits of a robust public television system which were not fully explored by CNMG. The local production and creative sector could have been continually commissioned to create and produce content for T&T and international audiences. The people of Trinidad and Tobago, whose taxes contributed to the subvention that supported CNMG over the past 12 years, must see themselves, their culture and their stories reflected on the national television station.
Our fundamental position is that TTT must have a specific local content mandate which puts the people of Trinidad and Tobago at the centre of its programming ethos – and that producers and directors must be entitled to receive fair and respectful licensing fees for their content. No more pay to play, no more, give us your content for free and we’ll show it on our channel. These old models have damaged our industry and proven unsustainable.
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What's next?
1. Become a FILMCO member
- the larger our FILMCO membership, the stronger our lobbying voice – many of us speaking in concert can have a real impact.
- once our website is launched it will be an invaluable tool in the aggregation and promotion of films, television shows, producers, writers and directors from Trinidad and Tobago which can be accessed by broadcasters and distributors around the world.
2. Don’t stand on the sidelines and wait and see.
- We need to be engaged and have a voice. Use your social networks to talk about the need for local content on the television.
3. Share our Facebook and Twitter posts to your networks, particularly when we post about the new TTT.
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