BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – An audience of more than two million people has been glued to Caribbean radio and television sets as they followed the ICC World Twenty20 Championship, according to an estimate by regional host broadcaster, the Caribbean Media Corporation.
“Over 15 days of cricket involving 30 events have been broadcast to viewers and listeners in 22 countries via two dozen radio and television stations across the region,” said CMC spokesman Dominic Beaubrun. “This represents over 100 hours of first-rate international cricket.”
“Cricket is a key ingredient in the cultural glue that has kept our region together for decades,” Beaubrun added.
“Thanks to our long-standing partnership with two important institutions, the West Indies Cricket Board and the International Cricket Council through its rights holders, CMC has been able to live up to its core mission of contributing to Caribbean integration through communication.”
The CMC spokesman also praised the corporation’s partner stations in the region for “unwavering commitment to broadcasting the games in challenging financial circumstances”.
“Despite the global economic crisis and the severe difficulties experienced here in the Caribbean, advertisers have also rallied and come forward to support what is a costly undertaking,” Beaubrun said.
The CMC is also gearing up to bring region-wide television coverage of the Digicel home series involving South Africa, beginning May 19th with two Twenty20 International matches, five One-Day Internationals and three Test matches.
CMC, a non-profit corporation, jointly owned by the Caribbean News Agency (CANA) and the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU), is the region’s premier news and broadcasting service, founded in 2000.
Among the events CMC has broadcast region-wide have been the West Indies cricket home series, the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games and IAAF competitions. It also pioneered the live broadcast of the 39th CARIFTA Games from Grand Cayman last month.
CMC operates the Cananews.com web-based news service and CaribVision, the international television channel, serving 23 Caribbean nations.