Broadcasting rights for the 2023 Pacific Games in Solomon Islands will focus on member countries rather than an individual company.
Pacific Games Council Chief Executive Officer Andrew Minogue told RNZ Pacific the Pacific Games Organising Committee would produce the programmes and have the selected broadcasters share that in their respective countries.
“We have basically settled on a model that is like the traditional model that we’ve employed in previous Games where the Organising Committee will sort of put it all together in-house and then contract with different regional broadcasters, for example, Fiji TV in Fiji or France Television for the French territories,” Minogue revealed.
“So, what will happen is they will all pull their resources, bring them all together and then create post broadcast.
“They’re not going to outsource it to another company, they’re going to do it themselves with the expertise they’ve gotten. They’ve got some very good people internally who have done this sort of work before.
“But they’ll lean very heavily, like all other previous Games have done, on contributions from regional broadcasters, from the TV and radio stations from participating countries who can bring some personnel, some equipment down to help put it all together.”
Ownership
Meanwhile, Minogue clarified that the decision on the broadcasting right is for the Council to make.
They work with the organising committees who put together a broadcast plan and organise the tender process.
“The broadcast right is ultimately owned by the Pacific Games Council. Just like we own the Games, we own the rights to the broadcasts as well,” he said.
“The Organising Committee puts together a host broadcast plan in terms of how they would like to deliver the host broadcast services and they would do that effectively with our blessings. They will issue the contracts to the host broadcast organisation, to the other regional broadcasters that might contribute to the production.
“But that has to be approved by the Pacific Games Council. That’s the process that we’ve gone through with Solomon Islands. There’s been the tender process, the evaluation of tender because there have been different bidders.”
Minogue said Solomon Islands Broadcasting will also have a role in the Games.
“There will be a role for them. There’s certainly been a big part of the discussions that we’ve had with the Organising Committee. And no agreements have been signed yet but our expectation is that SIBC will have the domestic rights in Solomon Islands to broadcast the games internally.
“But they’re not the organisation that will be the host broadcaster of the entire Games. We always try and keep that separate from a local broadcaster,” Minogue added.
The Council hopes that the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Channel will assist in boosting the reach worldwide, through their online platform.
Source: RNZ