AP: Few People Watch TV Marti

   MIAMI -- (AP) -- Ten months ago, the U.S. government launched a new effort to beam TV broadcasts into Cuba via a Gulf Stream jet, an end-run around the communist government's close grip on the island's media.

   A U.S. State Department draft report circulated last month called the jet "a best practice'' to beat the Cubans' jamming efforts and said the $10 million (euro7.3 million) startup cost was "a big investment but appears to be paying off," with viewership on the rise. Watching American TV broadcasts is
illegal in Cuba.

   But more than two dozen Cuban immigrants who recently arrived in Florida paint a very different picture. In interviews with The Associated Press, they said while the U.S. government's Radio Marti is heard throughout the island, TV Marti can rarely be seen. The TV operation costs U.S. taxpayers more than $20 million (euro14.6 million) a year.