Government television could hit screens by year end

By the end of this year, the viewing public could be seeing their politicians in high definition.

The government plans to have its own high-definition television channel on air by the end of the year, according to the Premier’s press secretary Charles Glidden.

“We aim to get the channel on the Weststar cable network before the end of the year,” Mr. Glidden told the Caymanian Compass.

A US consultant, Lynn Rowe, from One World Technologies Inc., is “gathering information as to what our aims are, available facilities and means of delivering our signal and will be mapping out a plan to get the channel operational over the next week”, Mr. Glidden added.

The as-yet-unnamed station will be aired on channel 25 of the Weststar cable network, he said.

One of the names being considered is CIGTV25, The Public Channel, but Mr. Glidden said nothing had yet been decided.

The station will broadcast Legislative Assembly meeting, but whether those will be aired live or after the meetings has not yet been determined. Premier McKeeva Bush has said the station will also include news shows and programmes explaining government policy positions, emergency announcements such as storm bulletins, and public service announcements.

Mr. Bush, at a public meeting in North Side in April, announced plans to launch the TV channel, on which he said the government could “educate the people of this country properly. They have a right to know more than they are getting from the mass media.”

Weststar would provide the channel free of charge and it would be included in viewers’ packages at no extra cost, the premier said.