Page 30 - IB Sept-Oct 2020

Fiji@50 Fiji@50
THE DEATH OF A REGIONAL GIANT

By Netani Rika oly of television coverage. Meanwhile, the FBC – our national
broadcaster – was flirting with insolvency. In the eyes of many,
Slowly but surely the once mighty Fiji Television Limited has profitability was a pipe dream.”
started to crumble, taken apart from within by a combina- Now it is Fiji TV that appears to be living off the scraps that
tion of government pressure, acquiescent board members and fall from the table. In January 2012, the Government sold its
questionable divestments. 14% shareholding—1,442,000 shares at $FJD2.40 per share—to
Last month the company announced the resignation of CEO Hari Punja and Sons Limited, which now owned a 26.16% stake
Karen Lobendahn and Manager Finance, Upendra Gounder. in Fiji TV. The company’s News Director, the well-respected
Lobendahn had been with Fiji TV for 24 years and CEO since and no-nonsense Merana Kitione also resigned at this time af-
May 2017; Gounder had been with Fiji TV for just nine months. ter consistently fighting the battle for editorial independence.
Fiji TV also released its audited financial statements at the Across the road, Fiji Broadcasting Corporation had been
end of August, and they make for sobering reading. Com- unable to dent Fiji TV’s ratings or revenue in over three years.
pany Chairman, Deepak Rathod has attributed the company’s Fiji TV maintained a strong stable of programmes, supported
recent poor financial performance to the impacts of COVID-19. by exclusive ownership of international rugby broadcast
However since December 2006, the writing has been on the rights.
wall for this once blue-chip company, which has seen revenue Enter government and the Television (Cross-Carriage of Des-
fall from $FJD23.2 million in 2015 to $FJ9,076,306 in 2020 and ignated Events) Decree 2014 designed to force Fiji TV to share
net profits drop from $FJD1.63 million in 2016 to $262,544 in the HSBC Sevens Series 2014-2015 with FBCL and Mai TV. Fiji
2020. TV had bought the rights from World Rugby, which for its part,
said it had not been consulted on the decree and did not con-
Smoke, mirrors and slow strangulation sent to sharing of the feed due to its contractual obligations.
The Fiji TV Group – at its height – owned Media Niugini What viewers did not know was that Fiji TV’s broadcast
Limited, the premier television station in Papua New Guinea, licence had expired and was being used to hold the company
and Sky Pacific, a satellite service with a footprint over much to ransom.
of the region. At the time Tanya Waqanika was Fiji TV’s Manager Interna-
Its independent news service had the ability to beam events tional, responsible for buying overseas programmes and man-
live into Fijian homes with its superior technology. However aging contracts. She recalls: “I was there in that boardroom
on December 6, 2006 Fiji TV chose to suspend its flagship 6pm when the Attorney General brought out a piece of paper say-
news bulletin after the military regime ordered media organi- ing that we must sign, unequivocally. Basically, it says Fiji TV
sations to deny coverage to the ousted government. agrees to give up its exclusiveness. It was a letter in support
Former Fiji TV Chief Executive Officer, Ken Clark, , who had to government and that letter was going to World Rugby.’’
joined Fiji TV in 1999 after a 38-year career at the Canadian Waqanika and then CEO, Tevita Gonelevu, say they advised
Broadcasting Corporation, remembers the incident: “What the board against entering the agreement. But Fiji TV gave up
we had prepared was examined and stuff was taken out. I’m the exclusive rights and FBCL was able to broadcast the HSBC
a believer in media freedom and in editorial freedom and …. Sevens series at a huge cost to its competition. By the end of
that first night we said OK tonight we won’t have a newscast – 2014 Gonelevu and Waqanika were dismissed. In a statement
just to deliver a message. It was inevitable that this was going to shareholders, Fiji TV denied the allegations of pressure
to happen. None of us liked it. We should be free and allowed from government: “FTV was not at any time coerced by the
to do our jobs in a democracy.’’ Attorney-General, Solicitor General or any other officer” it
A tenuous relationship with government ensued, particular- stated.
ly with Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, whose brother, The Board, including Fijian Holdings Limited CEO Nousab
Riyaz, was appointed in 2008 to head the Fiji Broadcasting Fareed, oversaw two significant divestments in the ensuring
Corporation, and which subsequently set up a rival television years.
service. Fiji TV had bought Media Niugini which owned Papua New
In contrast to the Government’s historically fractious re- Guinea’s oldest television station EMTV from the Australia-
lationship with several newsrooms including at Fiji TV, Riyaz based Packer Group in 2005.
Sayed-Khaiyum’s leadership at FBC has met with resounding “If you did the ratings and looked at what everyone was
support with Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama praising its watching, EMTV was far and away, especially on Friday night
approach as inspiring a “profound sense of patriotism”, at the for the footy, the most-watched service and that was the case
FBC’s Sapphire anniversary late last year. “Let’s not forget, for a very long time,’’ Ken Clark said.
before your current management took up the reigns, it didn’t The company was so strong that its profits carried the
appear likely the FBC would ever reach this Sapphire Anniver- Fijian parent company through difficult financial times, even
sary. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Fiji TV was eating with the taxes and exchange rates involved in moving money
your breakfast, lunch and dinner as they ran a virtual monop- between countries.

30 Islands Business, September/October 2020