RACHNA LAL
suva
Fijian Holdings Limited Group, as major shareholder of Fiji Television Limited, is looking to get more involved with the management of its media arm.
Fijian Holdings Group chief executive, Nouzab Fareed, said this is needed and necessary in order to turnaround Fiji TV’s financial performance.
He confirmed it will involve further restructuring.
“Shareholders are not happy about the performance. We will really get involved with the management in order to turnaround the company,” he said.
Mr Fareed’s comments follow the announcement of Fiji TV’s financial performance for the year ended June 30, 2014 where the Fiji TV Group posted a net loss after tax of $1.5 million.
Decrease
This was a decrease of almost 141 per cent whereby the group had recorded a $3.6 million profit for the previous financial year.
“For Fiji, we are planning to have some restructure in terms of the way we do business,” Mr Fareed said.
“It will also be an opportunity to expand SKY Pacific again. Within another 12 to 18 months, if the market is ok, we plan to bring another 25 channels.
“Of course it is a win-win deal – our cost will go up but there will be something for everyone. So if we have up to 50 channels, it will mean people have more choices.”
Mr Fareed said they remain confident that going forward, they will see a turnaround in the company within the first six months of the new financial year.
He further said Government too is planning to coming up with their digital platform which will also improve the quality of broadcast.
PNG outlook
Meanwhile, Mr Fareed said Fiji TV’s Papua New Guinea subsidiary, Media Niugini Limited, was performing well.
But, he said they expect competition in PNG to start from September.
“All this while PNG only had two TV companies. But from September, there will be another one and from November there will be another one making it four altogether,” he said.
“So it will be a big challenge for our PNG operations.”
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