C
A
R
I
B
B
E
A
N
C
R
E
A
T
I
V
E
S
The Regional Audiovisual Sector in Context
The audiovisual industry in the Caribbean is an emerging sector with scope for diversifying the region’s exports, employment, economic structure. The audiovisual sector also has shown the potential for generating high value-added jobs as well as destination and intellectual property branding for the region’s tourism sector. In addition, the composite nature of the audiovisual sector provides a ?llip to the other main components of the cultural and creative industries (e.g. the music industry, the performing arts, photography, etc.). In this respect, investment in the audiovisual sector will have a synergistic impact on the wider creative economy. The Caribbean is a small but growing player in the on-location ?lming sector and is able to earn income for local ?lm producers, actors, artists and technicians. The creation, distribution and exhibition of regional audiovisual content has grown in recent years on account of the increased global, diasporic and regional demand for local content along with reduced costs of technological and equipment inputs. This content comes in many different forms such as documentaries, feature ?lms, music videos, advertisements, animation, television programmes, and soap operas. The target markets crosscut national, regional, diasporic and international economies along with a range of broadcasters, exhibition spaces, festivals, multimedia, online and mobile providers. Like many developing country regions, the Caribbean is faced with the challenge of low economies of scale, poor market visibility, limited distribution and access when compared to the main global exporter and producer countries like the United States, India, France, the United Kingdom and Australia, etc. Only recently have incentive regimes been put in place in some countries in the region to attract private and public investment. A key challenge facing the audiovisual sector is the wide range of tariffs, other duties and charges that make the importation of equipment and supplies unduly expensive. There is also much scope for the harmonisation, simpli?cation, and
Volume 1 September - November 2010
implementation of intra-regional trade measures to facilitate the deepening of the regional market. The latter issue is being addressed by the CARICOM cultural industries taskforce which is documenting and examining the feasibility of such measures. Regional networking and advocacy is another weak feature of the landscape that needs to be addressed to achieve the necessary critical mass. The Caribbean Audiovisual Network (CAN) which was recently established under the auspices of the Caribbean Export Development Agency has as its mandate this particular challenge. Indeed, CAN’s mission is to facilitate business and export development in the regional audiovisual sector. The audiovisual sector is also plagued by an absence of data and information on economic performance and market trends, therefore, policy is often made without an evidence base that would allow for improved strategic planning, management and industry coordination. What is required are more detailed economic impact assessments. As it now stands only a handful of countries can present any credible data on the structure or performance of the audiovisual sector in their countries. Global technological trends and the growth of alternative genres and markets makes for a viable sector in the region. The Caribbean is now rising to the occasion and preparing to seize the opportunities through regional networking and new start-up ?rms. In this endeavour, strategic partnerships and collaborations are required to make the transformation to global competitiveness. Industrial upgrading in the home environment is a critical ?rst step that all the key stakeholders must co-operate on to achieve the desired results
www.creativeindustriesexchange.org
3