CDC to crack down on illegal streaming of Carnival shows

It is against the law to rebroadcast content accessed via pay per view. And people who continue to do so with shows organized by the Carnival Development Corporation (CDC) will be dealt with accordingly.

So says Anthony Dennie, the shows coordinator for the CDC.

“This is a contravention of the broadcasting laws in St Vincent and the Grenadines and we are asking persons to desist from doing so,” he said.

Through a CDC and Flow partnership, pay per view services are made available during the carnival season for people who wish to access CDC organised shows in the comfort of their homes or in the Diaspora.

Dennie, while speaking at a press conference this week, said that although people legitimately pay to watch shows, some were making the stream free to others by sharing the feed on social media platforms like Facebook.

The shows coordinator said that pay per view was introduced as an additional stream of income for the CDC.

“The running of carnival, we don’t do it with rock stone and bottle stoppers. It takes money to have it done,” he said.

“This is an area…once properly executed can bring substantial revenue to the Carnival Development Corporation and if there are persons who purchase legitimately but are turning around and making it free on social media, quite naturally cutting back on potential revenue for the CDC, then those persons will have to be dealt with.”

He further said that CDC will be contacting those who illegally broadcast carnival shows via social media to outline that their actions are not within the laws of this country.

Dennie said that shows will continue to be streamed for the duration of the carnival season. Persons in the Diaspora may view via VC3.com and local persons are asked to visit the Flow office to be granted access to the various shows.