You might be surprised what Cubans are watching.
By Nick Miroff
Published: February 17, 2010 07:37 ET
HAVANA, Cuba — Over the past two decades, the U.S. government has spent
some $500 million to beam news and commentary with an anti-Castro bent
into Cuba. But the programming hasn't exactly been a ratings success.
The Cuban government controls all media on the island and views the
broadcasts as enemy propaganda, so it jams the signals. The Miami-based
stations, Radio and TV Marti, have spent still more money trying to
overcome this by transmitting from moving airplanes, but the broadcasts
reach less than 1 percent of Cuba's 11 million residents, according to a
recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Meanwhile, hours and hours of subversive American programming fill
Cuba's airwaves each day, attracting millions of viewers on the island
with shows like "Desperate Housewives," "Friends" and "Grey's Anatomy."
How do they get there? They're broadcast by Cuba's own communist government.
With Radio and TV Marti and its $34-million annual budget facing growing
skepticism in Congress, the Miami stations' defenders insist they're
helping to break the Cuban government's monopoly on information. But
while Cuba's programming is politically biased and often tedious, it's
hardly a drab, droning monotony of pro-Castro propaganda.
Every night, Cuban television viewers are treated to programming lineup
loaded with contradictory messages. From 6 p.m. to 8:30 or so, the
government's news and commentary predictably depict the United States as
a racist, dysfunctional and violent mess, highlighting all the day's
negative stories. Then the same state-owned TV channels fill their
prime-time slots with Hollywood movies and American programs loaded with
images of prosperous American households, brilliant American doctors and
fair-minded American courts of law, all populated by exceedingly healthy
and charismatic actors of every race and ethnicity.
So how do Cuban TV viewers reconcile these dueling impressions?
"It's two sides of the same country," said Lorena Sandoval, a
60-year-old Havana resident who says the mixed programming is a reminder
that not everything in the United States is entirely good or bad.
Sandoval's not sure many Cubans get the nuance, though. "They just see
the nice cars and houses and think everyone in the U.S. lives that way,"
said Sandoval, herself a devoted fan of "Gilmore Girls," "CSI: Las
Vegas" and "The Dog Whisperer."
Cuba has five national television channels, and last weekend, the
programming included a broad range of foreign and locally produced
programming, everything from Cuban baseball games and low-budget music
shows to "101 Dalmatians" and episodes of HBO's "Six Feet Under." The
only commercials were public service announcements — encouraging people
to conserve electricity, avoid littering and use condoms, for instance.
"I think Cuban TV's main goal is educational," said Javier Torres, a
32-year-old Havana resident who said his only major gripe about
state-run programming is the lack of diverse viewpoints on news and
commentary programs. His favorite show is the prison drama "Oz."
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In another twist, the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba may actually make
it easier for American movies and shows to end up on Cuban TV. Since the
trade sanctions block the Cuban government from paying legally for the
use of American media content, it just uses the programming for free.
Even pirated copies of American movies make it onto the airwaves.
Current Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar" was shown on Cuban TV earlier
this month, copyright laws be damned.
Of course, state-controlled programming isn't the only thing Cubans are
watching. Thousands of island residents have illegal satellite dishes
that allow them to watch Dish or Direct TV programming from Miami, and
although the Cuban government periodically cracks down, it's a lucrative
business. One illegal satellite provider in Havana said he had more than
100 customers, each paying about $40 a month for service.
The service is far less common in the provinces outside Havana. But a
single satellite hidden on the roof of a city apartment building may be
secretly wired to dozens of nearby households, each paying $5 a month to
the satellite's owner for the ability to watch whatever he's watching.
That owner, in turn, takes requests from his neighbors and nearby
customers, who may want to view programs that aren't available on Cuban
TV, like "American Idol," a Yankees baseball game or "Survivor."
In turn, these illegal satellites feed an even larger black market for
DVDs and downloaded digital media. Enterprising Cubans record movies
from the satellite channels, then copy them onto DVDs for sale or rent.
Others end up stored and shared on hard drives or flash memory sticks.
The proliferation of digital media on the island has made it
increasingly tough for the Cuban government to monopolize its audience.
That competition may be another reason the number of state-run channels
has increased from two to five over the past decade, with programming
that increasingly reflects what people want to watch, rather than what
the government officially thinks they should be watching.
But it's also made Radio and TV Marti a less appealing alternative for
Cubans who don't necessarily want more politics in their lives. Cuban
dissident Vladimiro Roca recently complained to Miami's El Nuevo Herald
that Radio Marti was "so bad and so uninteresting to the Cuban people
that no one listens," adding that its coverage was too focused on exile
politics in Miami, instead of news from Cuba.
The Government Accountability Office's report reached a similar
conclusion, depicting the Miami broadcasts as plagued by low standards
of journalism. Among the problems the study found were "the presentation
of individual views as news," the frequent use of "unsubstantiated
reports coming from Cuba," and a tendency toward "offensive and
incendiary language in broadcasts."
Radio and TV Marti will soon begin partnering directly with Voice of
America to produce a new show aimed in part at Venezuela, a move some
view as a possible step toward bringing the Miami stations under great
control from the larger and more respected D.C. institution.
Cuba TV | Radio Marti | News stations (17 February 2010)
http://mobile.globalpost.com/dispatch/cuba/100216/tv-radio-marti
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