Radio and television broadcasts of baseball games beamed into Cuba has become the latest brainchild of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), whose Radio/TV Marti programs will make the cherished American sport available to Cuban citizens for free.
The anticipated sole-source contract that BBG intends to award to Major League Baseball Properties, Inc., comes on the heels of a congressional report questioning the usefulness of such investments of U.S. taxpayer funds into Cuba-targeted programming. Similarly, it also should be noted that, late last year, Radio/TV Marti journalist Manuel Vazquez Portal resigned in protest of the station's alleged over-reliance on entertainment rather than news.
The BBG Special Notice, which U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor located during a routine search of the FedBizOpps contracting database, said yesterday that the agency formally will procure the MLB license within the next 15 days.
It did not reveal the estimated cost of the endeavor.
***UPDATE (3 p.m. EST): Thanks to a major media news source who contacted U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor seeking additional information about this post (and whose identity will not be revealed for the time being), the Monitor would like to clarify that -- according to that source -- MLB already allows BBG to re-broadcast a limited number of free baseball games, including the World Series, to Cuba. Upon release of further details about the anticipated new broadcasting license the Monitor will offer a follow-up post specifying the scope of the "new" arrangement.
Source document: Solicitation #BBGCON021612-MC
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