From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 15, no. 1, March 2000.

By Pesi Fonua.

Three broadcasters are gearing up to snatch Tonga's tiny television audience. One of them, Chris Racine, of the well-established OBN TV7, says he is ready for the competition.

A battle to attract the most television viewers in Tongatapu and the nearby island of ‘Eua has just begun.

After years of allowing the monopoly telecasts of the privately-owned Oceania Broadcasting Network TV7, at the end of last year Privy Council finally approved two new television broadcasting licences, one going to the Tonga Broadcasting Commission and another to Joseph Ramanlal, a local hotel owner.

The Tonga Broadcasting Commission planned to begin transmitting on July 4, when the channels become available (See: Radio Tonga sets up television station [2]), while Joseph Ramanlal was looking at equipment, and planned to be on air before the end of the year. Although they were approved by the Privy Council, the annual renewable licences have yet to be issued by the Tonga Telecommunications, the licensing authority who will look at the technical details and channel allocation.  

The allowing of two more stations to be established on Tongatapu brought mixed reactions from Chris Racine who established the Oceania Broadcasting Network, TV7, here in 1991. It was the second television station to be serving Nuku’alofa at the time, the first was the Tupouniua’s TV3, which later folded.

Chris Racine came to the South Pacific from the United States and became a Tongan national after investing more than $3 million in his station here.

“I agree with the opening up for more variety of programs for the people. Competition is good because it means we have to be very creative in order to remain in business. But at the end of the day, with regards to a government television station, the people will lose out because government money will be directed to prop up television and not to a dilapidated public service,” he said.

“The idea of opening up and diluting the market will produce low quality television, because no one will come in and spend the money necessary. I think it is a mistake.” Chris said that he was currently losing $20,000 a month on providing the only television service for Tonga.

Four channels

After seven years providing a limited service, TV7 established itself firmly in Nuku’alofa in 1998 when Chris embarked on a $3.4 million upgrading program. He put up an 85 meters tower, installed a satellite dish, refurbished a new master control room, and introduced other audio equipment to double their transmission capability. At the same time he put in an application to register four channels, and asked for the duration of his licence to increase from what was then two years to ten years. Currently two channels are utilised by OBN, one for its NTSC system and the other for PAL. His competitors have their eyes on the two unused channels he has registered until July 4, 2000.

In the beginning in 1991 most of the programs were imported and reached only the people of Nuku’alofa, who could watch movies and the delayed rebroadcast of CNN news. Today viewers in Tongatapu and ‘Eua can watch today’s news live from the BBC, London, three times a day, and a wider local content, along with OBN’s high content of Christian evangelical programming.

Chris is further expanding his operation and has been given the go ahead to establish both television stations and FM radio stations in Ha’apai, Vava’u and the Niuas. He expected the Vava’u television station to be up and running by April.

Chris said that by utilising the digital technology, his FM radio stations could be linked direct via satellite to radio stations in the USA and to anywhere in the world. Once this network of FM stations was up and running “it is then possible to live broadcast any event that is taking place in Tonga or overseas.”

Precarious

Even though Chris was elated with the new television and FM radio station licences that he was given, there were still some fundamental problems to be resolved with regards to his investment. Chris said that he was in a precarious situation because after investing so much money, “then government decided to reduce the duration of the licence [to one year] and open up the market to be diluted.

“I have a big concern, which I have raised with His Majesty and the Prime Minister, that the one year renewable licence in my opinion is a disastrous decision, I don’t know anywhere else in the world that issues such a licence. The station has to make a calculation, that there is a possibility that it may have to pull out of here in 12 months. We made a sizeable investment, but if you run a 12 months television station, it may be better to go back to the kind we used to have before 1998.”

“You are going to have the same kind of problem, for example with Cable and Wireless. When you come to the end of your licence, and the new technology is available you are not going to upgrade because you may be out in a month. The logic that it will open up the market and encourage investment is false, it does exactly the opposite.”

However, in recent years OBN’s presence was a monopoly that some people felt uncomfortable with, while subsequent applications for licences to establish television stations were being deferred or turned down by the Tongan licensing authority, and OBN had bagged all the useful four channels.

Competition

After the government-owned Tonga Broadcasting Commission’s application for a television licence was deferred, OBN then became a target for public debate.

To have three television stations for Tongatapu and ‘Eua with a population of only 60,000 people, operating in a country with an underdeveloped commercial sector, will mean fierce competition to control the airwaves and to get the lion’s share of the advertising cake.

All the licence holders want to have a significant presence in Tonga’s television and radio markets.

The Tongan Broadcasting Commission currently broadcasts its AM radio service nationally, and an FM radio service that can be heard mainly in Nuku’alofa. Joseph Ramanlal, owner of the Pacific Royale Hotel, is operating a 24-hour music FM radio station that can be picked up in most parts of Tongatapu and also ‘Eua. Chris Racine now has licences for FM radio and television stations nationwide.

Chris’s interest in the media is not restricted to broadcasting only, he also had a go at the print media, and last year launched a weekly newspaper, the Oceania Star , which had a short life of less than a month.

Expansion

Particularly threatened by this OBN expansion is the government-owned media, which for decades dominated the ownership of the Tongan media, until the arrival of privately-owned media in the late 1970s. Until then the church had offered the only variety.

Chris said he believed that government was better off spending its money in improving the public service and should leave the media to the private sector, which was willing to invest in an area where government had been losing money in trying to provide a service.

Chris said he first came to Tonga in 1988 to discuss with King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV the possibility of establishing a television station here. It was decided that he should go ahead, so he launched an application for a licence.

“The one experience that I have become accustomed to in Tonga, is that I would walk away from the Palace feeling so happy, because on one hand the King had just given me the go ahead to do this and that. But once I was outside the Palace gates, I knew that the fight had just begun, and that I would have to fight every inch of the way with all these crackpots to get things done.

“I believe that there are people in government who have a different agenda from that of His Majesty. It is supposed to be a team game. If some of these people worked for a major corporation, they would have been fired years ago.

“I launched an application for a licence in 1988 and after waiting for three years for this licence, I decided to just go ahead and build it anyway,” he said. He was later granted a licence. It was only a minimal investment at the beginning, with VCR cassettes coming in from overseas for transmission, and very few local programs.

Two year licence

Later in 1998 because he was making a sizeable investment of $3.4 million, Chris said he applied for the duration of the licence to be extended from their normal two years to 10 years. The new up-grade was to be completed in time to broadcast live from the Dateline Hotel during a Prayer Breakfast to mark the King’s birthday on July 4. The guest preacher was the popular American evangelist, Rev. Hill.

“After spending $65,000 to host the Prayer Breakfast, we were all set for the occasion, excepting one thing, we didn’t have a licence to broadcast. The irony of the matter was that the people who were responsible for issuing the licence were asking why don’t you go on air? And I had to say to them, You go and explain to the King why we can’t go on air!

“We went on air that day and I was given a licence for two years, and the registration for the four channels.” Chris said that he had to get over these kind of hurdles ever since he first applied for a licence 12 years ago.

“When I first came here and met the King in 1988, and I was going back asking myself, does it makes sense to make this kind of investment in a little country like this? I can reach 50 times more people somewhere else with the kind of investment that I am making here.

“It is only out of our love and devotion to the King that we are here. I have affection for the man and for his love for the Tongan people.

“We are just providing a service, you can have a look at our books. It is costing me $50,000 a month to run the station while our income from advertising is around $30,000. Imagine if we were here for commercial purposes!”

If Chris thought he was given the walk-about when he applied for a television licence, he was heading for the round-about after he presented a proposal to government last year to take over the Tonga Broadcasting Commission.

Take-over bid

Chris said the proposal to take over the Broadcasting Commission came from himself and Princess Pilolevu Tuita, based on a report that the commission was losing money. He thought that it did not make sense for government to spend money propping up the commission, while the public services, particularly health and education were in desperate need of some capital input.  

The take-over bid by Chris shook the Broadcasting Commission, which at the time was stunned by a Privy Council decision to defer their application for a national television licence.

The general manager of Radio Tonga, Tavake Fusimalohi, said the project was approved by his board and he had been working on it during the past four years. Tavake said that the disappointing thing was that the Commission planned to enter the new millennium with its own television station, and they had hoped to have it up and running in time for the Rugby World Cup in October last year.

The application by Chris to take over the Tonga Broadcasting Commission was turned down by government, but by then Chris and OBN were on one end of the pole, while the Television Licensing Authority (the Tonga Telecommunications Commission), and the Tonga Broadcasting Commission were on the other end.

Finally Privy Council granted the additional licences, along with OBNs  new licences.

Although they were only one year renewable licences, Chris was in high spirits at the end of January.

“We are not afraid of the competition, we know the economics and how the television advertising market is because we are in it right now. Two products we do not touch are beer and cigarettes advertising, which His Majesty did not want us to touch...We have a game plan and it will surprise them [the two new stations] when they come along,” he said.

“We will link the whole country up by satellite, and with that we will cover more of Tonga than A3Z. We can also buy time in FM stations in the US and elsewhere and have live programs from Tonga playing there. We can also broadcast live here selected overseas events.

 “A television and an FM station for Vava’u will be up and running as soon as April. Technically there is no problem in Vava’u but we have a problem with Ha’apai because it is so flat.”

Four star hotel

Chris’s business venture in Tonga has extended beyond television and radio. Late last year he bought the beautifully located Paradise International Hotel in Neiafu, Vava’u, and he is planning to invest another US$3 million to remodel the property and turn it into a four or five star Destination Resort Hotel.

Chris said that the remodelling plan included an increase in the number of rooms from 48 to 68, a man-made beach, an enlargement of the swimming pool, and a division of the dining area into a casual and a fine dining areas. With sporting activities he said there would be boats for scuba diving and for game fishing, and he planned to build an 18-holes golf course.

“You just can’t drop people off the edge of the planet, which is what happens when tourists come here. If we want to attract tourists we have to be able to provide the services in order for these people to be able to communicate back home, which means good telephone, fax and e-mail services, and Internet access.

“But you can’t run a business with the way Telecom has this country wired up. It takes about eight or nine tries to get a fax from the USA to Vava’u.

“I want to concentrate and attack areas where I think that government is missing the boat. We are not going to rely on the Tonga Visitor’s Bureau for marketing, we travel a lot and we know what travellers need and expect to get in a hotel,” he said.

“I believe that television sets and computers should be duty free in this country. Internet in this country should be free, and we are working on a proposal to make it happen, because of the potential of the Internet for education, communication and for business is enormous.

Winning place

“This place could be a winning place because of the attitude and the heart of the people, they don’t get down. The thing you notice about Tonga that really touches your heart is that this is not the angry third world, these are people who are thankful for what the Lord has given them.

“There are, of course, a few complainers...Every now and again I run into some crackpots who are just so keen to tear things down, they are just missing the point. Be part of the solution instead of being part of the problem.”

Despite his professed losses on running the television service, and his new entry into Tonga’s struggling tourism industry, Chris Racine said he was wealthier today than when he first came to Tonga.

“When I came to this country I did not have the kind of wealth we do now, and I believe that out of being faithful to ourselves and to the Lord, and lifting up His Majesty daily in prayer, God has helped us. Some day we want to give back even more, and that is why we bought the hotel, I think I can create some thing good for this country, I think I can employ a lot of people, and give them life and dignity.

“If things don’t work out, I am happy to put up an electric fence on the hotel and call it home. There comes a time when you do not have to fight,” he said.