SIBC’s Chairman Dr William Parairato signed the contract with MMG to pave the way for the supply of equipment and eventual installation from June this year. As part of the agreement, MMG will also provide technical and production training to SIBC staff and prepare the station to broadcast a local channel, featuring local athletes during the 2023 Pacific Games, which is being hosted by Solomon Islands.
SIBC recently received SBD$4,000,000 as a result of an intervention by Prime Minister Hon. Manasseh Sogavare who has committed the Solomon
Islands Government to ensuring the people of Solomon Islands have a local TV station in 2023.
“We the board, management and staff of SIBC would like to thank the Prime Minister’s Office for the support. We look forward to bringing a
local TV service to our people”, Chairman of SIBC Dr. Parairato said.
Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation has been a radio broadcaster for seventy years. While Solomon Islands has two local digital TV
platforms, there has been no fully fledged local channel. SIBC TV will feature local news, current affairs, live sport and
entertainment.
"MMG Communications is very pleased to be a part of this project. We have been working on this since 2021 and we’re thrilled to be
able to be supporting SIBC’s goal to be a national TV broadcaster”, MMG’s Richard Broadbridge said. MMG is supplying production and master
control technology to allow SIBC to be aired on Telekom TV’s Digital platforms during the 2023 Pacific Games. MMG will be providing two
trainers for six months and will prepare staff and management around sustainability.
SIBC and MMG are jointly bidding to be the Host Broadcaster of the Pacific Games, Pacific Islands’ largest sporting event held every 4
years. It will see over five thousand athletes and officials converge into Solomon Islands in November 2023. If awarded the Host
Broadcaster role, SIBC and MMG propose to broadcast eleven channels via TTV’s digital platforms including its App TTV Now.
The SIBC TV build project begins in June and ends in December 2023.
Ends.
The SIBC is the main channel by which the Government of Solomon Islands enables the provision of information and education services to the
communities, including up-to-date information and different perspectives on matters affecting their quality of life, livelihoods, cultural
wellbeing, health, safety, and security in times of emergency or disease outbreaks and development generally. The SIBC remains, for most
people in most communities, the main provider of worthwhile and relevant information for their educational, livelihood, and personal
objectives. These include cultural, sporting, religious, commercial, and community objectives. The Solomon Islands Broadcasting
Corporation was established by an Act of Parliament – The Broadcasting Ordinance 1976.It was established to provide a high-quality
broadcasting service, by radio, of a wide range of programs for the information, education, and entertainment of all people living in the
sovereign borders of the Independent State of Solomon Islands.
MMG Communications is a New Zealand registered broadcast and communications business which owns and operates internet service providers
(ISP’s) in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. MMG is also a systems integrator and has designed and installed multiple broadcast and
Telecom related sites in the Pacific Islands. MMG is privately owned and has extensive relationships across the region and continues to
supply satellite, fibre and fixed wireless internet, managed services and power solutions to Government, enterprise and the corporate
residential segment in PNG and New Zealand. As an engineering and production company, it has been behind projects such as 2019 Pacific
Games, the establishment of TV services to Tuvalu and Kiribati and digital migration projects in American Samoa, Samoa, Vanuatu and Papua
New Guinea.