News on FBC TV |
writer : SUN FIJI BUSINESS |
The Fiji Broadcasting Corporation Television (FBC TV) will be officially launched on November 25, 2011 and is being eagerly- awaited by many around the country.People will want to know more about this.
Fiji Sun business editor Rachna Lal yesterday interviewed FBC chief executive officer Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum-himself a leading TV journalist-to shed more light on FBC TV.
Q: Which areas are the test signal currently in?
A: We have fired up Suva with a test programme with Al Jazeera, Zee TV Zing channel. Over the course of this week, we have also fired up Tavua, Ba, Nadi, Lautoka and last night Sigatoka was on and next week we will be finishing off our site in Delaikoro which will cover all of the North.
Q: How can people watch FBC TV?
A: For all of Fiji, you need a VHF antenna - for Ba and Tavua you need UHF.
This is a free to air terrestrial coverage and not satellite service. We do not want to burden the people of Fiji to buy a satellite dish. All we are saying is if you have an existing antenna, use it and if you don’t; it will cost about $50 to buy one.
Q: When will FBC TV news start?
A: It will be at least two to three months before we are able to start with news service. It will be the last thing that we will launch because I want by the time we launch our news service, it has to be perfect and of highest standard possible. I do not want to start a new service just for the sake of starting a new service. In the meanwhile, we will air the Ministry of Information news service.
Q: How are staff preparing for the TV news?
A: We will have our own news team which is undergoing training. It is imperative that we get the right sort of training and the right people to head it.
TV news broadcast is not an easy thing to do; it requires very special skill sets that you need to have with very special training in order to be able to do it. When we decide we have received enough training and our people are able to produce a news bulletin perfectly, then we will be telling people news.
Q: It is obvious a lot has been invested to get FBC TV up and running. Can you shed some light on how much this project has cost?
A: It is quite obvious that we have spent a lot of money although I cannot reveal just how much.
Rumours have it that this project could have been done in a cheaper way and that we have spent too much money.
Till date no one has any idea on the exact amount. It could not have been done with $1 million or even $4m; it is way more than that.
We have upgraded the whole of the FBC building. People who have been through here, clients and (members of) Cabinet - they totally understand that this is not an easy thing to do and it has taken a lot of money to do this. It is state-of-the-art technology.
Q: Where is FBC TV placed in terms of technology?
A: We are in a position where we are ready for the future. We did not undertake this project just for now but we have planned well for the future so that we will be future-proof. When digital comes about we will be ready for digital. We have made sure that we have got microwave links throughout the country for radio and television.
Our links are redundant and so if one link fails the other link fires off and we are never down unless there is some major earth-shattering catastrophe where everything in Fiji falls down. Otherwise, we should be up on air 99.99 per cent of the time.
Q: How well will the coverage be?
A: We have made sure, as a public broadcaster, even though we are a free-to-air channel, our coverage is absolutely amazing when you compare it to other public broadcasters around the world.
When this project is over in a matter of a few weeks now, our coverage will be well above the average rate of free-to-air channel all over the world. We expect a minimum of 90 per cent of the population to be covered by our signal.
Q: How well will the signal catch?
A:Everybody is already saying how clear our signal is. The quality of the picture and the sound is extremely clear and it has never been done before.
Pay service does not even offer this level of exceptional service. It is sharper, brighter and sounds better.
Q: Is there a chance that the entry of FBC TV will kill the market?
A: We have some people saying that with FBC TV entering the market, it will kill the market. I do not believe this. We will in fact grow the market. If you get other new businesses interested and get them to advertise on radio and TV, it is not killing the market; it is about enhancing the market and getting more people involved by creating more clients. I think there is room for other companies to survive as well as us.
Q: How is the advertising part of FBC TV working out?
A: We have companies already signing up advertising contracts with us and that is an incredible achievement for a TV company that is not on air yet. We have more companies who will be signing up next week as well.
Q: What programmes will be shown on FBC TV?
A: Keep on listening to FBC radio stations and keep reading the Fiji Sun for more information to know which programmes will be on FBC TV.
Q: What can be expected in terms of programmes?
A: We will have something for everyone - from kids to housewives to teenagers and also for the entire family as well as for adults.
We will also have religious and international programmes; not just Bollywood and Hollywood but we are looking beyond that. We are looking at newer contents from around the world because we want to be able to show them to the world without having them leave their homes. Because we know a lot of people can’t travel overseas due to financial constraints.
Q: Future outlook prediction for FBC?
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