MAI TV ESTABLISHES OUTSIDE BROADCAST UNIT

In a bid to provide more LIVE outside broadcasts, MAI TV has signed up with ASCO Motors to use a brand new Toyota HIACE to house what will be state of the art mobile production facilities.

In a handover ceremony at ASCO Motors Mai TV CEO Richard Broadbridge thanked ASCO Motors for partnering up with the growing broadcaster to provide more LIVE events including Mai TV’s Dance Invasion at the Vodafone Arena next weekend.

The Van will house video and audio switching facilities and will be capable of sending LIVE images from anywhere in the country to Mai TV’s

audience. Mai TV broadcasts to Suva, Nadi and Lautoka with Ba and Tavua to be on air within the next month.

The broadcaster, which owns exclusive Pacific rights to the FIFA Soccer World Cup, intends to launch its services to Vanua Levu in February 2010.

WORLD ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS ON MAI TV

International athletics will be showcased on MAI TV next week with the network broadcasting 5 hours of highlights of the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

The highlight on the international athletics calendar in 2009 is the IAAF World Championships in Athletics from Berlin. MAI TV will cover the 9-day event from Monday to Friday next week at 7pm daily. The IAAF World Championships is commonly known as the largest sporting event worldwide behind the FIFA Soccer World Cup and the Olympic Games.

“We are grateful to our sponsor Rexona, the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union and SBS Australia for allowing us to access this fantastic event. It will be Mai TV’s first bite at the athletics apple” CEO Richard Broadbridge said.

MAI TV is receiving five one-hour highlights shows via satellite from Berlin.

Athletics adds to a growing list of sport that Mai TV has ventured into including the FIFA Soccer World Cup, Oceania Football, Fiji Netballand Fiji National Rugby League.

MAI TV GETS REGIONAL RECOGNITION

MAI TV has received regional recognition with its News & Current Affairs Producer Stanley Simpson being awarded the Pacific TV Journalist of the Year by the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Simpson picked up the PINA/ABC TV Journalist of the Year and PINA Print Journalist of the Year Awards at the Pacific Media Summit in Vanuatu last week.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to take top honours at this prestigious event. It’s a birthday present to us and recognition for Stan and all our staff for the hard work they put into making Simpson at Seven and MAILIFE Magazine,” Managing Director Richard Broadbridge said. Veteran ABC journalist and lead judge of the TV category, Sean Dorney noted in his citation that Simpson’s impressive collection of submitted television items delighted the judges. “The matters his entries covered ranged from the tragic story of a young Tongan girl dying of cancer through the contentious social issue of prostitution to a virtual forecast of the abrogation of the Fiji Constitution,” the judges noted.

“The item on Tae Kami, the Tongan girl diagnosed with cancer as a child showed a marvellous sensitivity. She agreed to be interviewed by Stanley in the months before her death and Stanley then held onto the interview until after she passed away in August 2008. Stanley described the interview as “emotional and challenging”. “For his story on prostitution, Stanley says he spent months trying to meet and find out more about the young women drawn into the trade and he eventually won the confidence of a young sex worker who agreed to an extensive and revealing interview.”

“Stanley also provided the audience in Fiji with a compelling piece about the teachers and health professionals forced into retirement…on the very last day they were allowed to work in their schools and hospitals.” The Simpson@Seven team will continue to do inspiring and investigative stories that touch peoples lives, and are working towards building a fully-fledged newsroom for Mai TV.

Please contact Stanley Simpson directly for comments on 9927720 or Richard Broadbridge on 9927721.

MAI TV SIGNS OCEANIA SUB-LICENCE AGREEMENT WITH SBS AUSTRALIA 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP SOUTH AFRICA™ & OTHER FIFA EVENTS

As the Official Broadcaster of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™, SBS Australia today announced it had signed an Oceania sub-licence agreement with MAI TV, Fiji.

“The agreement ensures that millions of people across the Pacific region will be able to watch FIFA tournaments, including next year’s World Cup in South Africa, on free-to-air TV,” said MAI TV Managing Director, Richard Broadbridge.

“For such a young broadcaster – only thirteen months old; MAI TV is extremely happy to be awarded the task of sub-licensing the World Cup rights into the Oceania territories of American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia,Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu,” continued Mr Broadbridge.

“With the acquisition of FIFA content, football will be lifted to a new level in the Pacific region with more support for Oceania football as well as local associations.” MAI TV will transmit SBS Australia’s broadcast and commentary for all LIVE matches in the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.

“SBS is well respected in the Australian market for its experience and expertise in broadcasting some of the biggest sporting events from around the globe; the FIFA World Cup is considered the pinnacle,” said Managing Director of SBS Australia, Shaun Brown.

“We are, therefore delighted to be working with MAI TV to ensure even greater coverage of the FIFA events throughout Oceania.”

About MAI TV (Fiji) Limited
MAI TV is a free-to-air commercial broadcaster in Fiji. It has rights for PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Vanuatu and Solomon
Islands and other non-French speaking territories MAI TV (Fiji) Limited is fully Fijian owned and will have 87% coverage of the Fiji group by February 2010. For further information:

MAI TV
Richard Broadbridge – Managing Director
rbroadbridge@tv.com.fj

SBS Australia
Jo Parker – Communications Manager, Sport
jo.parker@sbs.com.au

OFC and regional broadcasting newcomers announce Futsal partnership

Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is excited to announce its partnership with Fijian broadcaster Mai TV to provide comprehensive televised coverage of the OFC Futsal Championship Fiji 2009 to be held in Suva between 6-10 July.

The agreement will see Mai TV provide broadcast coverage of all six round-robin matches as well as the ‘crunch day’ play-off matches including the championship final.

OFC General Secretary Tai Nicholas says the new partnership shows OFC’s ongoing commitment to providing greater exposure of football throughout the Pacific region.

“The appetite for televised football – including alternative forms of the game such as Futsal and beach soccer – continues to grow within Oceania and OFC is committed to delivering extensive coverage for the fans,” said Nicholas.

“We are delighted that Mai TV are as excited about football as we are and that they are committed to filming every minute of the OFC Futsal Championship.”

This year’s tournament will see defending champions Solomon Islands battle it out with hosts Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu to see who is crowned Oceania’s number one Futsal nation.

Delayed broadcasts of the each day’s action will be shown free to air each evening on Mai TV during Fijian prime time.

A comprehensive one hour highlights package of the tournament’s most exhilarating action will be made available to broadcasters in each of the participating nations as well as New Zealand and Australia after the championships completion. Mai TV will also make this highlights package available online at www.tv.com.fj

For Mai TV’s CEO Richard Broadbridge, winning the rights to broadcast the OFC Futsal Championship is another significant progression for his young broadcast company.

“We’re extremely happy to be OFC’s partner in this event. We see football as major content for us and our Pacific neighbours, and will be showing more football in the region over the next three years,” Broadbridge said.

Broadbridge and Mai TV are also readying to further grow their commitment to spreading the football gospel with local content aimed specifically at football to be seen on Fijian screens in the near future.

Celebrating 1 Year with you

Free to air broadcaster MAI TV today celebrated its first birthday by announcing the expansion of its services over the next 8 months

Beginning with Ba in September, MAI TV will commission a new transmitter to the town, which will also see services reaching parts of Tavua as well.

“It’s been twelve months since we launched – it’s hard to believe that before we arrived there was no competition in the free to air commercial TV market. We are happy with our share of the market but we will work hard over the next year to grow it significantly”, CEO Richard Broadbridge said.

MAI TV has acquired major content for the next twelve months, which includes Oceania Football, Fiji Netball and Fiji Rugby League.

“Business wise it’s been a very tough year for us. Like other businesses we too are at risk with currency fluctuations, competition and lower advertising budgets” Broadbridge said.

Mai TV says it works tirelessly at keeping its costs under control while also ensuring its viewers are given a high standard of content.

MAI TV employs 25 staff in Suva and will be looking to hire another 15 people as it now heads into new areas of the country, which will include Labasa and Savusavu in February.

“It’s only natural that we thank our advertisers, investors, viewers, families and friends for supporting us. Fiji was crying out for a competitor and we hope to fill that void over the next 12 months” Broadbridge added.

MAI TV also thanked the Interim Government for its support for competition in the television market.

PLEASE CONTACT R BROADBRIDGE ON 3275051 FOR INFORMATION

Click here to download PDF

MAI TV WINS MAJOR SPORTS RIGHTS

MAI TV FIJI today announced that it had secured exclusive broadcast rights to 2 major events and a 3-year exclusive arrangement with NETBALL FIJI.

The free air broadcaster which is about to celebrate its first birthday next week said it had secured host broadcast and Pacific Island rights to OFC’s FUTSAL Championship in Suva next month along with Fiji BATI’s two test series against British Amateur Rugby League Association or BARLA.

The biggest announcement today was a 10 event outside broadcast deal with Netball Fiji which we see MAI TV televise primary schools netball for the very first time.

“While we will give extensive coverage to the national side we have also indicated that we would like to be part of netballs development here” CEO Richard Broadbridge said.

MAI TV has made a commitment that it will launch services to Ba, Labasa and Savusavu within the next 8 months.

MAI TV will broadcast FUTSAL LIVE while Fiji Bati Vs BARLA and certain netball tournaments will have a prime time delay play on MAI TV.

PLEASE CONTACT R BROADBRIDGE ON 9927721 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.

Mai TV special announcement

Mai TV and the Fiji Netball Association today (19/06/09) signed a pioneering and historic agreement, giving Mai TV exclusive rights to cover all Netball Fiji sanctioned games from the primary schools to the national level.

This comes on the heel of last week’s announcement by Goodman Fielder of their sponsorship of the first ever inter-district primary schools championships.

Today, Mai TV CEO Richard Broadbridge and Netball Fiji Secretary Wati Seeto, announced the landmark agreement.

That was the press conference earlier today by Mai TV and Netball Fiji, and comes as this station prepares to celebrate its first year anniversary.

Also today, another major announcement. The Oceania Football Association in a press release today granted Mai TV exclusive rights to cover the Oceania Futsal 5 a side championships to be held in Suva next month. A milestone for Mai TV.

All the more reason for you to stay with Mai TV

FIJI FACT TV COVERAGE

Thursday 11 June 2009.
Chairman
Fiji Commerce Commission
Garden City
SUVA.

Dear Sir,

RE: FIJI FACT TV COVERAGE

Fiji Football Association has advised us that an exclusive contract is in place with our competitor Fiji TV Ltd (SKY Pacific) to cover Fiji FACT. Fiji TV through its Pay TV service SKY Pacific is charging viewers FJD$49.95 to watch elements of the tournament including the final match.

We have never been invited to discussions or participated in a bidding process for these rights. It is standard practice worldwide for large sporting organisations to have open bidding for rights. In Fiji FA’s case a contract was signed without even consulting Mai TV. Mai TV has made numerous attempts to meet with the President of Fiji FA in regards to Mai TV’s access. We seek the following:

1. Give our viewers an opportunity to see matches for free. Mai TV has proposed that we film elements of the FACT tournament specifically for a new sports show. It will have no impact on the LIVE broadcast of the match. A letter giving this assurance is attached for your information.

2. Millions worldwide enjoy football. To sign an exclusive deal to show certain matches on Pay TV is unfair to both Mai TV and Fiji’s viewers. We firmly believe that football should be aired for free in Fiji. Mai TV has assured Fiji FA that we will air certain elements at no cost to the viewer.

3. Fiji TV has limited subscribers whereby Fiji FACT only on Pay TV will be boosting their subscription numbers – again only people who can afford Pay TV will enjoy this tournament. Fiji TV should air Fiji FACT on its free to air channel FIJI ONE.

Thousands of people enjoy Mai TV everyday. The service is free. We
seek your assistance in ensuring that football is given free to air access and that we be allowed to cover the Fiji FACT tournament by
abiding to the terms covered in our letter to Fiji FA.

Sincerely

Richard Broadbridge
MANAGING DIRECTOR

CC: Minister for Sport
• Fiji TV
• Fiji Times
• Fiji Sun
• CFL
• FBCL
• Daily Post
• Fiji LIVE
• MAILIFE Magazine
• FASANOC
• Oceania Football Confederation

MAI TV ASKS FOR FAIR PLAY

TV Broadcaster MAI TV has asked the interim Government
to treat all new entrants in the free to air field the same.

Fiji’s second free to air broadcaster made the statement
today following talk of a new free to air broadcaster VTV,
which has begun laying the groundwork for its operations.
VTV did not participate in the Interim Governments 2007
tender for new licences.

“MAI TV participated in a tender process in 2007 and
began broadcasting within 6 months of the issuance of its
licence. These were the rules and we abided by them”,
CEO Richard Broadbridge said.

MAI TV understands that other licence holders who
participated in the same tender continue to have their
licenses extended, which is not in accordance with the
initial rules.

“We think fair play should be considered here before
another licence is issued”, he said.

MAI TV suggests that the Ministry of Communications
should terminate all licences which have not be used as
stipulated in the initial 2007 tender and call fresh tenders
if new broadcasters wish to enter the market.

MAI TV says it has made its views on this matter known to
the Interim Government.