Economic return for TV industry low

BY BEN BILUA

Director of Communication Department within the Ministry of
Communication and Aviation Mr Alwyn Danitofea.

THE Television Board’s chairman says economic returns for television has been very low, leading to inconsistency of television services in the country.

Speaking during the Information and Communication Technology awareness last week Mr Alwyn Danitofea said no television company has consistently provided service due to the very limited economic return in the television sector.

“Currently Solomon Telekom Television is the only organisation who provide free to air television services in the country.

“There are other television service providers that exist but the providers require certain fees to access their services,” he explained.

Mr Danitofea also said there are certain downsides within the television regulator.

He stressed that the television regulatory body is not a stand-alone entity but depends entirely on government support through tax revenues.

Mr Danitofea said the Television Act needs to be reviewed to address certain issues that continue to downgrade television service in the country.

“We have lots of issues that needs to be properly discussed and address.

“One of the issues, for example is the television code of practice.

“At the moment, we have no television code of practice exist for interested television providers to demonstrate technical capabilities before entering the television industry.

“Again this shortfall will be drawn down to the capability of our regulation and legislation for television industry,” he said.

Mr Danitofea said the absence of code of practice creates a loophole for any television providers to air contents according to their interest and not the code of practice.

He said the existing code of practice and can be penalised by the existing Television Act are include deformation of character and copyright contents.

Mr Danitofea said Solomon Islands slowly developing and now going into ICT infrastructure to deliver the content of services as such setting proper legislations and regulatory mandate for the Television Board is very important.

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