Carrier scurries to make tower deal
FIJI’S $16million national digital television platform was announced with much fanfare in 2014 and was to have been launched in July this year. That date later moved to October for a soft launch in the nation’s capital but as yet there has been no word on an expected date for streaming of television signals into homes using set top boxes.
Last year, Telecommunications Authority of Fiji acting chairman Shivnesh Prasad said digital TV services would provide an opportunity for more broadcasters
and content providers to operate. Digital technology enables broadcasters to offer television with better picture and sound quality, and multiple channels
of programming.
On the back of that announcement, Fiji’s Prime Minister Rear-Admiral Frank Bainimarama announced plans to switch from analogue to digital television last
year. Prime Minister Rear-Admiral Frank Bainimarama said plans had been finalised for the creation of a national digital television platform aimed at improving the picture and sound quality of television programs and expansion of coverage.
To be managed by Fiji Broadcasting Corporation – headed by Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, the younger brother of Communications Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, the national platform was to enable broadcasts to cover 94 per cent of the population at launch.
While there has been silence on the failure to start the service on time, insiders say the necessary equipment to enable FBCL to manage the system will
not be available from Germany until mid-2016 at the earliest.
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