RACHNA LAL
suva
Good news. Tree of the most popular channels replaced by SKY Pacific earlier this month will be restored in a few weeks.
These will be Star Plus, BBC and Nat Geo Wild.
Fijian Holdings Group Limited, as a major shareholder of Fiji Television, has confirmed this.
Group chief executive, Nouzab Fareed, said the Fiji TV team has begun negotiations with the providers and they will be back on within one or two weeks.
“We have given specific instructions to the Fiji TV management to get started. But we know we can’t get back all the channels. But the main three we need to,” he said.
“Normally it is very easy to lose something. But once you lose it and you want it back, there will be a lot of hurdles,” he said.
“But we have started negotiating and it can come back soon – say maybe within one or two weeks time.”
Mr Fareed has apologised to all SKY Pacific subscribers who were affected stating this was a very expensive lesson they had learnt which was that customers decide the fate of a company.
Effective August 3, SKY Pacific introduced 11 new channels taking up the total number of channels to 24 but it also replaced nine of the existing channels.
Since then, the Consumer Council of Fiji has been inundated with complaints from disgruntled SKY Pacific subscribers.
This had led to the council meeting with the Fiji TV management.
The reintroduction of these three channels will take the total number of channels on SKY Pacific now to 27.
Mr Fareed has confirmed there will not be any additional cost for the reintroduction of these channels to subscribers.
Call to fast-track talks
Meanwhile, the Consumer Council chief executive, Premila Kumar, has called on Fiji TV to fast-track its negotiations to restore the SKY Pacific channel line-up.
The council’s call came amidst the continuing outcry from concerned Sky Pacific subscribers, some of who are contemplating withholding their August subscription pending the restoration of the channel line-up.
Ms Kumar said subscribers were demanding for quick resolution with clear indication that both time and patience was running out.
She further acknowledged Mr Fareed’s commitment in ensuring that some channels if not all will be restored
“We applaud Mr Fareed who has not minced his words in accepting that ‘customer is a king’ and giving instructions to Fiji Television to bring back the top channels,” she said.
“This is a breakthrough and we, along with the 20,000 plus Sky Pacific subscribers now wait to see this commitment materialise.”
Feedback: rachnal@fijisun.com.fj