Over 100 employees to be laid off
The Trinidad and Tobago government on Friday announced the closure of the state-run New Media Group (CNMG) putting more than 100 employees on the breadline.
But Public Administration and Communication Minister, Maxie Cuffie, said that a new entity carrying the name, the Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) station, would be formed and that the dismissed workers could re-apply for positions.
“As you know a decision was taken by cabinet yesterday to wind up the operations of the state-owned media company CNMG and to revisit and resume broadcast through Trinidad and Tobago Television Company Limited,” Cuffie told a news conference Friday.
He said in December 2015, Cabinet had appointed a team to look into the operations of CNMG and the Government Information Services Limited (GISL) and whether they were serving their mandates.
He said after the report was received, Cabinet authorized an audit of the two companies, adding that “in terms of CNMG, the company has never been able to fulfill its mandate and based on the market share according to a 2014 media survey, which is the last one…the market share was five to six per cent” with two of the radio stations having less than one per cent.
“Commercial revenue had fluctuated between TT$30 and TT$33 million over years 2011 to 2015,” Cuffie said, noting that operational costs “had steadily increased ranging from TT$18.1 million in 2011to TT$26.3 million in 2015.
Cuffie said that the company had 112 fixed term employees and 37 free lancers.
He said the only bright spot for the CNMG group was Radio 100 that was competitive and maintained market share, adding “so that influenced the government’s decision to keep that radio station going”.
He said the basis for reverting to TTT as a public service medium is that over the years there had been a great attachment to the brand TTT that was never gained by CNMG.
