After more than 65,000 minutes of airtime from nearly 300 programme episodes and more than 60 live-streamed events, having reached 183 countries around the world, UWItv is celebrating the milestone of its first anniversary.

The multimedia, public information and education service of The University of the West Indies (The UWI) was launched on 25 November, 2016 and went live in December 2016. One year later, the university is marking the success of the platform with a celebratory event and award ceremony on Tuesday at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination at The UWI Cave Hill Campus in Barbados. It will be streamed live online at www.uwitv.org beginning at 7:00 pm (Eastern Caribbean time).

UWItv is a tripartite partnership involving The UWI, CaribVision (the regional cable service of the Caribbean Media Corporation) and the RJR Group in Jamaica. It delivers three hours of programming daily to millions of viewers across the region as well as the large Caribbean Diaspora communities in New York, Toronto, Montreal, London and Europe. Its traditional television broadcasting is complemented by a robust web and social media presence which allows users access to content in real time or on demand.

UWItv‘s diverse Caribbean-focused programming features the vast intellectual content of the regional university. It is central to The UWI’s mission as a vehicle for disseminating knowledge, stimulating critical thinking, promoting activism and nurturing leaders in every sphere of Caribbean life.

In its first year of operations, UWItv has sought to drive regionalism through solution-based discourse and public education.

The anniversary programme will include a feature address by President of Caribbean Broadcasting Union, Gary Allen. An inaugural UWItv award will also be presented to broadcasting’s quintessential Caribbean man, Julian Rogers.

Guided by its ethos “Caribbean matters”, UWItv deemed it fitting to pay tribute to Rogers’ 54-year career of contributions to Caribbean press, radio and television and as a ground-breaking presenter and programme-maker, owner/manager, trainer and consultant.

He is well known for his track record of transforming new, independent radio stations into market leaders and national institutions, particularly throughout the 1980s and 1990s and has remained at the forefront of building new media brands throughout the turn of the new century.

In addition to his numerous career highlights, Rogers has been an adviser to several regional and international institutions on media development and training and has sat on the Regional Advisory Board of The UWI’s Caribbean Institute for Media and Communication.

For services to broadcasting, he was made a Member of Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2014.