Colombia. During the opening to the fiftieth General Assembly of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU), the ICT Minister, Sylvia Constaín, highlighted the modernization process that Teleislas has undertaken and invited to strengthen joint work with the countries of the region.
"We are very proud of our television and our public radio. Today we are making history with a policy that has prioritized public media because it deeply believes in its importance," he said during the meeting of media from 24 island countries such as Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba, Guyana, among others.
For the first time this event was held in Colombia and is a recognition of the quality and work being done by the public channel of San Andrés, Teleislas, which since 2016 is part of this association with which it exchanges trilingual content (Spanish, English and Creole), thus conquering audiences from different countries in the region.
"Today Teleislas is a strengthened channel, a channel that grows, that produces trilingual content and that is expanding the coverage of its national and international signal with more and better content," said Minister Constaín, highlighting the process of strengthening and modernization of television and public radio that is being led by the Government of President Iván Duque.
This commitment has been translated into resources and this year a historic item was allocated for the development of content on national and regional public television: $ 42,100 million, the highest budget allocated in the last nine years.
The ICT minister also said that with the Law on Modernization of the ICT Sector (Law 1978 of 2019) an institutionality is created that recognizes the way people consume content today: through different screens, thanks to the creation of a single regulator and a single fund, which will guarantee the financing of public media, diversifying sources of income.
"Colombia in the last year has taken a leap forward, we have a new ICT Law that allows us greater connectivity, but it has also strengthened us in our television and public broadcasting system," he said.
Finally, the official invited to strengthen the joint work with the Caribbean Broadcasting Union, as it is essential to multiply the effort that is being made in the country. "What summons us today is how to use our content, how to use our systems across the Caribbean to, united, create greater opportunities to share our culture. Working together we can find new ways to collaborate," he said.
San Andrés today has a coverage of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) of 100% and 25% of the households on the island, especially the most vulnerable, have benefited from the installation of reception systems (antenna and decoders) to enjoy the contents in high definition.
