Pacific Islands Television Survey Report 2002

From the Introduction

"The main purposes of the survey, conducted from July to October, 2002, were to acquire updated information on the penetration of television broadcasting in the Pacific islands region, the status of the television broadcasting organizations in the island countries and to assess the development of local television programme production by Pacific islanders for Pacific island television organizations and viewers.

...A two page document entitled, UNESCO PACIFIC ISLAND TELEVISION SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE was dispatched by email and facsimile to 24 television broadcasting organizations in 19 Pacific island countries. Questionnaires were returned...by 16 countries and information from two countries was obtained by telephone and reference texts. This means that basic information on 18 countries was acquired...

Penetration of Television Broadcasting in the Pacific Islands Region

Television broadcasting currently exists in 19 of the 22 island countries widely dispersed over the vast expanses of ocean in the Melanesian, Micronesian and Polynesian sectors of the Pacific Region.

This level of media organization establishment represents a regional penetration factor of 86 percent, which occurred over a period of 40 years commencing with the first introduction of television broadcasting to the United States Territory of Guam in 1956 and ending with the most recent introduction of the medium to Tuvalu in 1996.

An important feature of all but one of the television broadcasting services is that they were introduced more for entertainment purposes rather than for development or educational purposes. The exception was American Samoa in 1964 when the military administration of the Government of USA established 8 channels of television broadcasting beamed to school children in classrooms all around the country in answer to an acute shortage of local primary and secondary school teachers.

[Nineteen] Pacific island countries have television broadcasting either by terrestrial transmission or cable transmission....There are three Pacific island countries which currently do not posses television broadcasting...

Characteristic of Pacific island television broadcasting organizations are the small-scale systems which service the centres of population in and around urban areas. The existing technology is nearly all analogue with miniature studio production equipment and low power transmission systems. A number of TV stations are using digital production equipment but there is little evidence that the transfer to Digital Broadcasting transmission systems has been contemplated in the region at national or at organizational level nor the implications seriously considered at practical level.

The development towards Digital Broadcasting Systems was not mentioned in any of the returned survey questionnaires. It seems, therefore, that most concerned people and most television organizations are not in the process of preparing for the transfer to digital transmission technology. However at a recent UNESCO regional meeting of radio and television broadcasters, it was apparent that the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC) has converted most of its radio studio systems to digital technology and that the Tonga Broadcasting Commission and Fiji TV Ltd have equipped their small scale television production and on-air studios with digital systems.

In view of the current situation and analogue status of most television organization systems, there is a large need to create awareness among Pacific region television executives and practitioners concerning the implications of the imminent transfer to digital broadcasting systems worldwide. This applies equally to the conversion of production and transmissions systems. In addition the situation implies that considerable development of human resources as well as television programming would be desirable prior to leap-frogging into the digital broadcasting dimension.

Television Programming

The programming of a television broadcasting system in the Pacific islands region is as simple as “playing back” imported videotapes on-air or “patching in” and relaying satellite television signals received from abroad.

Foreign entertainment material such as feature movies, popular series, documentaries etc. pre-recorded off-air in the USA, complete with commercials, weather bulletins and announcements, are air-freighted to many Pacific islands for the purpose of programming local television transmissions...

Most of the foreign television programme material being conveyed by the Pacific air-waves and occupying the island viewer's time and attention is produced in USA, UK, France, Australia and New Zealand. Programmes made in Japan, Singapore, Korea, Israel, India, Philippines and China are also on the schedule. Typically, the bulk of Pacific island television transmissions contain foreign programming ranging from 80 to 100 percent. The main providers of this programming exist or former colonial powers in the region.

12 of the 18 television organizations included in the survey, indicated that their foreign programming content was 80-100 percent. 2 organizations indicated that 70 percent of their transmissions were of foreign origin and 3 indicated foreign content of 45-55 percent. Only 1 indicated foreign content as low as 15 percent...

In 13 (or 72%) of the 18 Pacific island countries in the survey, local television programme production ranges from “zero” to 20 percent. In one of the countries the level is stated as 23 percent. One other country claims a 30 percent level of local programming. The remaining three have higher levels of local programming. They are Tonga-TV 45 %, Papua New Guinea's EMTV 45% and the Tuvalu Media Corporation 85%. In the case of EMTV this indicates changes in company policy over the last decade. In the case of Tonga-TV this indicates a deliberate corporate plan as the organization commenced operations in 2001. In the case of Tuvalu Media Corporation, it should be noted that overall transmissions number only 3-5 hours per week.

Ownership of the television broadcasting organizations is still largely in the hands of governments. Of the 18 surveyed, 13 are operated directly by governments or through government corporations...

Transmission hours of the various Pacific island television organizations range from 3 hours per week to 168 hours per week....

Despite the mostly small populations and limited economies of the region, many of the Pacific island countries are close to television saturation point..."

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