National Carnival Commission (NCC) chairman Allison Demas says today's parade of the bands, like yesterday's, will be streamed online by the National Carnival Bands Association (NCBA). She was responding to complaints yesterday from some of the thousands of T&T citizens abroad who tried unsuccessfully to view the festival on the state-owned Caribbean New Media Group's (CNMG) live stream yesterday.
Asked about the setback, Demas, who was touring mas camps in San Fernando with Minister of Arts and Multiculturalism Dr Lincoln Douglas at the time, said this was because CNMG did not have the rights to stream the parade of the bands online. However, it owns the television rights.She explained, "Since last week, the NCC entered into an agreement with CNMG and this was on behalf of the NCBA, Pan Trinbago and Tuco. CNMG was given the exclusive television and non-exclusive rights for streaming, except for Big Friday and during the parade of the bands.
"My understanding is NCBA has made their own arrangements for streaming of the parade of the bands. The stream is available and it is on the NCBA Web site. The NCBA made their own arrangements."
CNMG's CEO Ken Ali issued a release yesterday confirming the station had been blocked from streaming the parade of the bands from the Queen's Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain, by NCBA president David Lopez.
"CNMG has been blocked by Mr Lopez from airing the internet stream to the millions of people around the world who depend on ctntworld.com to enjoy the Greatest Show on Earth. Today, we engaged in further dialogue on the subject, through Allison Demas, chair of National Carnival Commission (NCC). Ms Demas said she regretted the situation but was powerless to reverse Mr Lopez' decision," the statement said.
CNMG said it had been subject to negative comments from people who visited its Web site hoping to enjoy coverage of the mas parade, and apologised to stakeholders for "this most unfortunate situation."
It added, "CNMG remains committed to coverage of the national festival, as evidenced by the fact we are the only broadcast media in T&T that provided extensive and quality coverage of all aspects of Carnival 2013."The parade of the bands can be viewed online at www.ncbatt.com.