We have the broadcast
- Goolsarran helps to finalise agreement with EchoStar for Guyanese to see World Cup 2003
by Donald Duff
Stabroek News
January 23, 2003
General Manager of the Guyana Television Broadcas-ting Company (GTV), Martin Goolsarran, yesterday disclosed that barring unforeseen circumstances, Guyanese will now be able to view the 2003 World Cup cricket competition in South Africa and Zimbabwe on television.
Goolsarran is just back from Antigua where he was part of a Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) negotiating team that brokered an agreement with rights holders EchoStar for the competition to be shown in the region by CMC member stations.
“We managed to come up with a common strategy which worked,” Goolsarran told Stabroek Sports yesterday.
According to Goolsarran, EchoStar first reduced their asking price from US$1m to US$850,000. However, this figure was still too high for the CMC member territories, and, following another set of negotiations, EchoStar agreed to further reduce the figure.
“The final proposal was accepted and, as of now, all that remains is for the signing of the contract,” Goolsarran said.
“In the meantime, GTV is going ahead with preparations for the World Cup. We are carrying out satellite tests right now and fine tuning some technical aspects,” Goolsarran said. And, there is more good news. Goolsarran revealed that GTV will offer the broadcast to the other local members of CMC.
“I’m sure it will be offered to the other CMC members in Guyana,” he said, adding that the final cost for Guyana will be shared among the stations that wish to carry the broadcast.
“We will have the broadcast. I’m confident that the cricket will be shown in Guyana,” Goolsarran declar-ed.
However, while the situation with the television coverage looks optimistic, there is still a question mark over the radio broadcast.
Goolsarran said they were looking at several options but one, that of sending a Caribbean team to South Africa was thrown out.
He said they were looking at the possibility of broadcasting from the television monitors from some territory in the region.
“Radio coverage is equally important as listeners might want to listen to the broadcast while driving to work and so on, said Goolsarran.
On the issue of the contract, Goolsarran said it was hoped that the contract would be signed before the end of the week. “The contract will not be signed until all the stations are satisfied that the technical arrangements are adequate. This was in light of concerns especially in Guyana that the satellite used may not deliver the best quality signal, hence the extensive testing,” said Goolsarran.