Press release, for immediate use

To: media From: Broadcasting Company Attribute to: A spokesperson for the Bermuda Broadcasting Company

January 31, 2019

The Bermuda Broadcasting Company has been in a state of transition for several years and harsh economic realities have forced the company to make some very difficult decisions.

We are compelled to make the jobs of three people redundant today in order to decrease costs and retain our financial viability. We have done so after consultation with the and in accordance with our Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Making redundancies is a gruelling, heart-wrenching process and every alternative option was thoroughly explored before coming to this decision.

To state unequivocally: BBC does not let go of staff lightly and would much rather create new jobs. But as we discard obsolete business models and embrace the new technologies that make us leaner, better equipped to meet the challenges of the new media age, and to protect the livelihoods of the majority of staff who work here, sacrifices have to be made.

We operate in a challenging and highly-competitive environment in which the pirating of television content is rife and certain corporations aggressively seek to expand their footprint by reselling BBC- licensed programmes at a fraction of their true market value and often without our consent. Such practices undermine our ability to innovate, remain competitive and retain staff.

The BBC, a legacy media company, is the longest-established broadcast station in Bermuda and we take our responsibilities very seriously. In addition, we are the only ABC and CBS affiliate stations located outside of the U.S. and, accordingly, we pay substantial fees for (and thereby own) local broadcast rights to some of the most popular network TV shows. Unfortunately, certain competitors use our company’s content every day, without any compensation, which ultimately cuts deeply into our bottom line.

Local television production is labour-intensive and costly and we bolster locally-made content with the purchase of rights for high profile television events such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games. We also have challenges that put financial stress on our radio programming, such as highly unreasonable demands for certain music royalties, which hurts us and local retailers and businesses that play our stations for the public to enjoy. Then there is the advertising revenue that has been sucked out of the local media to the benefit of social media.

All over the world, media companies are collapsing, contracting or consolidating. Not only legacy firms but also relative newcomers like web-based Buzzfeed News and the Huffington Post, who recently shed hundreds of jobs.

On many fronts, the BBC is battling against large, foreign-owned corporations and other entities that simply don’t play fair in Bermuda and certainly do not share the sense of civic duty that drives much of our decision-making.

Fortunately, Government is aware of the issues that negatively affect the broadcasting sector and we are working on solutions to ensure that the BBC continues to provide its valued broadcasting services. Three years ago we invested in state-of-the-art equipment that digitized our entire broadcasting operation. The BBC won back-to-back national awards for its technical innovation. We can only satisfy viewers and sponsors if we continue to stay ahead of the curve.

It is with great reluctance that we make these redundancies today. The BBC first started broadcasting (as ZBM1) more than 70 years ago and is an integral part of the fabric of this community. And it’s as true today as it was when we first went on air – that an independent news media is vital to the overall health of our island democracy.

We value every individual we employ and part with those persons made redundant today with deep and sincere regret. The BBC reluctantly makes these cuts now in order to fight another day and continue to broadcast to the people of this country.

- BBC spokesperson