SOUTH PACIFIC STOCK EXCHANGE
SUVA
Fiji Television Limited has responded to the concerns raised by SKY Pacifc subscribers and the Consumer Council of Fiji on the new and replaced channel line-up.
Chief executive, Tevita Gonelevu said they were pleased the Consumer Council of Fiji and Fiji TV team met on Wednesday after the concerns from the SKY Pacific subscribers.
Mr Gonelevu has made it clear it was never Fiji TV’s intention to disappoint its subscribers.
“But through this change, Fiji TV was able to gauge how passionate SKY Pacific subscribers area with our product and they have been very proactive in highlighting types of services and content athat they expect from the SKY Pacific platform.”
Below are excerpts of Mr Gonelevu’s responses through SPSE:
For BBC Channel
The BBC Channel was dropped after repeated complaints by Fiji TV to BBC that the channel is currently pirated in Fiji.
“One of the biggest challenges for broadcasters is piracy and there are other channels that Fiji TV currently has that are also being pirated included the FOX Channels content themselves.
Territory clearance
In terms of Territory clearance, Fiji TV has been given the licence to operate its Pay TV business in Papua New Guinea.
Fiji TV needed to have legal clearance for all its channels to broadcast into all SKY Pacific broadcast territories by the content suppliers themselves.
For FOX Channels
The major channels that have been the source of subscriber dissatisfaction are the dropping of some of the FOX International Channels.
The other channels are Discovery and Discovery Home and Health, which have not been legally cleared by Discovery for SKY Pacific to broadcast into PNG.
Toonami and Cartoon Network are owned by the same company. Toonami network caters for a different genre of cartoon viewers.
Given Fiji TV’s public listed status, it is imperative that territories were legally cleared for airing of all SKY Pacific Channels.
Mr Gonelevu emphasised that Fiji TV cannot and will not be involved in piracy.
FOX in PNG
FOX International Channels could only clear two channels, Fox Crime and NatGeo for the PNG market.
However, the remaining three Fox Channels, Fox Movies, Star Plus and Star World were not cleared for PNG.
These three channels were given by FOX to a Pay TV competitor in PNG for exclusive broadcast throughout PNG.
Fiji TV management had made it clear to FOX management that launching into a new and bigger territory with far less channels would not be a viable decision for Fiji TV.
Despite the above issue, Fiji TV continued to negotiate with FOX International on several options including geo blocking or selective picking of channels however both parties were unable to reach an amicable solution.
Fiji TV has made it known to FOX International that once it grows its business, they will certainly work on getting the channels back from FOX International.
Assessement
The assessment of quality of channel content is always a subjective one and SKY Pacific is already some positive feedback on some of the new channels.
TV will work with its channel suppliers on the possibility of having at least one or more original channels being part of our new line up.
Feedback: rachnal@fijisun.com.fj