Grenadians grab Discovery T.V.
Weekend EC NEWS
October 6, 1989
Grenada Prime Minister Herbert Blaize has confirmed
that the Grenada government has reached agreement
to acquire American-owned Discovery Television.
“We are working towards getting a company established
so that shares will be sold to the public,”
Blaize told CANA, “it will be an organization
owned by the government and the public.”
Discovery Television, Channel 11, was set up by Boston
businessman David McCourt and went on the air in 1986.
Blaize said that Minister of Education George Mcguire
had been charged with organizing the new company of
which government will own 51 percent of the shares.
Mcguire told CANA that negotiations with McCourt
had been finalized for the purchased of the station
for EC$2, 064,000 but “there is a little obstacle
which has to be overcome.”
“We would prefer to make a public statement
next week when everything is in order, he said.
Mcguire said he was not competent to say how the
purchase would be financed but government had been
looking for assistance “all over the world”
and since last April, has had an offer of financing
from a British company.
An informed source said on Sunday that technicians
from the British firm of International Generics were
in Grenada for the purpose of installing relay equipment
at various sites to ensure television reception throughout
the mountainous three-island state of Grenada, Carriacou
and Petit Martinique.
The source said the total cost of acquisition of
Discovery Television and installation of the relays
was likely to exceed EC $20 million.
According to a press release issued by McCourt, who
operates McCourt Cable Systems in Boston, Discovery
has a staff of 21, of which one is an American, one
is Trinidadian and 19 are Grenadians.
The release said the station has increased its initial
daily on-air time of tow hours to the present fifteen
hours and the number of television sets in Grenada
has jumped from 1000 four years ago to over 30,000
today.
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