Show early World Cup matches on TVJ
Published:Monday | June 18, 2018 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Allow me to vent my disgust at TVJ's coverage of the FIFA World Cup and its decision to exclude half of Jamaica from its coverage of early matches.
On Friday and Monday morning, I switched on my television to watch the matches, only to see 'Smile Jamaica'. On Sunday, the fare on offer was a Tom and Jerry cartoon. This, while the biggest competition in the world was available to well-connected Jamaicans.
This is the biggest world event held for one month, every four years, and yet many Jamaicans only get cherry-picked matches. TVJ is a free-to-air channel and presumably competed for exclusive rights, as such. Instead, TVJ is forcing those who want to watch the early games to switch to the vastly inferior TVJSN, or online, to watch a stuttering stream.
RURAL DISCRIMINATION
If you aren't affluent enough to afford it or in a part of the country with little Internet or cable penetration, you don't deserve to watch. The usual discriminatory treatment against the country bumpkins is not in keeping with the spirit of the game.
I have always championed TVJ`s coverage of sports largely because of athletics, but this has been a sorry spectacle so far. The rationing of games between the haves and have-nots has never been a feature of local coverage.
The World Cup is a shared cultural experience where all games should be available to both affluent Jamaicans and deep rural and poorer Jamaicans in the least-developed pockets of Jamaica. It is shameful that in the middle of this global festival for football, many are excluded from some games.
While early games usually have smaller countries, we don't only want to see Brazil and Germany. Allow the minnows to parade their talents before the world, including here at home. They earned it, as Jamaica did in 1998. Sport has the capacity to unite warring communities, inspire youth, and bridge cultural divides.
LEATHLAND BLACKWOOD