Fiji Television has been given a 12-year Television Broadcast licence by the Government.

The licence was yesterday handed over by Attorney-General and Communication Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum to Fiji TV board director Nouzab Fareed.

One of the conditions of the licence is that more locally produced shows will be aired by the company, but they must move beyond local sport, with half the local content not sport.

Also, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said with a 12-year licence, the company should upgrade their equipment and invest in human resource.

“We have now extended the license for a period of 12 years. Today we have much pleasure in handing over the Television Broadcast licence to Fiji TV and also with that, we are also handing over the head licence for spectrum allocation and use”.

This licence, however, will be varied when digital television is up and running in various parts of the country.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum explained that at the end of the year, people living in the Suva-Nausori corridor will be able to make a switch from analogue to digital television.

“Government has been carrying out a number of substantive works regarding spectrum allocation in Fiji which has led to a number of changes within spectrum allocation.

“What is going to happen is that under this licence we have obviously put in some conditions as with the other broadcast licence holders, what will happen with Fiji Television is that as soon the switch over takes place, this licence will then be varied to reflect the digital spectrum.”

For the first time also in Fiji’s history, we have such specific spectrum for each of the separate stations.

“We have put other conditions, as we can do under the law which is putting a lot of emphasis on the local content. Local content in the development of television is very critical. Previously we have seen that when specific hours of local content had been put in, people had tried to fulfil that by showing local sports.

“Local content is not just about local sports. We have for now said that for the 25 hours of local content, at least 13 hours should not be sports – it should be other content whether in vernacular or English language. It must be local content and must be local production.”

Mr Fareed who received the licence on behalf of the television company said they had not expected a 12-year licence.

“On behalf of Fiji TV shareholders, board, management and staff a big vinaka vakalevu to Government. We have gone through some tough times, we are receiving this licence after four years.

“Going forward, as the Minister for Communication highlighted, yes for financial and strategic reasons, Fiji TV has to increase its local content. Financially, it is really good to provide more local content and our audience who have been watching the imported content want more local content.

“So, going forward, you will see much more than the required number of hours on local content and at the same time we are exploring local creativity because right now in Fiji we do not have reality TV as such and it is something we are looking into.”

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