The Islands Keep

Suva Gets The Picture

How Long Will The Islands Keep TV At Bay?

y one of those freaks of recep i Suva’s one and only television itiver picked up some perfect '.gs-and-sound programmes from dralia in January. Distance ered was 2,000 miles. )METHING of the sort had already been experienced by the owner of a set in the Manus ;rict of New Guinea, who has re ted getting a flicker occasionally m a TV station on Guam, well the north in the US Trust Tern y of Micronesia. ’he Fiji receiver that pulled in stralia was brought to Fiji last ,r by a firm which used it as a imick in an electrical exhibition d during Suva’s Hibiscus Festival October.

Jince then, Mr. Theo Goodare, of 7a. has patiently experimented h the set, trying to bring in nolulu TV stations. Results were , encouraging—the picture beamed >rly, although the sound came ■ough reasonably well, rhen Mr. Goodare turned his at ition to Australia, and on January ucceeded in tuning in a Brisbane ,tion. Later, he viewed pro immes in other Australian States, tfost Fiji residents seem to be rly unenthusiastic about the de opment of TV in the Islands. ,ose who have watched in Aus dia and UK generally bemoan the D-standard programmes (horse ► eras, cops-and-robbers, melo amas) and decry the possible leful and time-wasting influence Islanders.

NZ Now While admiring the business omen of the importers, many are iphatic that a TV transmitter is e modern luxury that Fiji can 01 do without yet awhile, although will come.

With TV established on the Pacific rders, in Australia, Japan, Guam, iwaii and USA, however, the die is been cast.

On January 29, New Zealand an lunced it will soon have its own levision system, both commercial id non-commercial, run by the NZ roadcasting Service.

Just how TV can take hold, and 3 possibilities from a retailer’s lint of view, may be gauged by the ct that since TV commenced in ustralia in September, 1956, more lan 750,000 receiving licences have ‘en issued (at £5 a pop). Australia’s jpulation is 10 million.