With the second round of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens series kicking off in Cape Town this weekend, some communities in Fiji will be watching Free Live Rugby and cheer for the national team from the comforts of their homes for the first time.
One such area is the greater Naitasiri province which now has access to Walesi’s freeview television services, thanks to the recent deployment of Walesi’s transmission site at Monasavu.
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama recently launched the rural electrification program at Waibalavu village in Naitasiri.
The Walesi team has sweetened the deal by conducting roadshows in the area and connecting 55 households to Walesi’s freeview television services. 94 more households from the neighboring Nakorosule village also benefited from the roadshow drive by the Walesi team.
Before Walesi, villagers in the area used to travel by foot to the top of the mountain behind the village with their TV set, antenna, generator, mats, grog, water, food, and other essentials to watch rugby games and camp there until the games were over for 2 to 3 days because there was no TV signal in the village.
Walesi Limited is a state-owned entity that is responsible for the deployment and management of the Digital Television Broadcasting platform in Fiji together with other initiatives in line with the Fijian Government’s digitalFIJI strategies.
The Walesi freeview television service provides 8 free-to-air TV channels – FBC TV, Fiji One, FBC Sports, Mai TV, FijiTV Channel 2, FBC 2, Parliament TV, and Hope Channel.