By Sonia Gill
As a region, the Caribbean often defies superficial attempts at definition, encompassing as it does continental and island territories, home to multiple language groups and population sizes ranging from 5,000 to 11 million, comprising indigenous and migrant peoples, and descendants of slaves.
Even in the face of this diversity, for Caribbean broadcast media there are many commonalities, social, economic and political. And a poll of the sector would likely find that the transition from analogue to digital is the most important issue for the past decade.
Digital switchover (DSO) has long been a high priority for the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU), a 47 year old body, grouping media entities in 24 countries and territories in the Dutch, English, French and Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Our mandate includes facilitating indigenous programme production and sharing; capacity-building of media institutions and professionals; joint negotiation of rights for programming; and advocacy in regional and international forums on policy and technology issues.
The digital switchover is still hard for some regions such as the Caribbean, where there are many issues to be resolved, as SONIA GILL explains.
- Intermedia Issue:
- Vol 45, Issue 01
- Issue Date:
- April 2017
- Region:
- Americas
Sonia Gill
Secretary General, Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) 
