(Photo: FBC News)

The switch from analogue to digital television in Fiji’s Northern Division will start in September 2022 and is expected to take up to two months to complete.

Sanjay Maharaj, Chief Executive of Walesi, the government’s digital television infrastructure company, said teams were continuing with roadshows across the division to create awareness of the change, FBC News reports.

“We envisage the exercise to take about two months and we will visit each and every household to get people connected and eventually the analogue broadcasters will switch off their transmission and viewers in Labasa will be on par with what we have in Viti Levu,” he said.

The Northern Division covers three of Fiji’s 14 provinces including Vanua Levu, the country’s second-largest island. Labasa is the division’s largest town.

The government has meanwhile allocated FJ$14.6 million (US$6.4 million) in the 2022-2023 national budget to Walesi to fund the completion of the digital switchover awareness project for the rest of Fiji.

The country began the phased nationwide transition to digital TV in December 2021. Fijian broadcasters have run analogue and digital transmissions in parallel since 2017 in preparation for going fully digital.