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Minister Confirms SBC- TV Sale Coming Up

Written by Pio Sioa
Monday, 19 May 2008
The Minister of Communications, Safuneituuga Neri, has confirmed the May 21 takeover date of the Government run SBC-TV by the new owners Samoa Quality Broadcasting, SQB. “The date is actually the deadline for SQB to come up with the $2 million purchase price, when they move in and officially start running the company will wait until the whole process of approval is completed,” Minister Safuneituuga told Newsline on Friday. The remaining process after the money is paid over will require Cabinet to go over the final sale before the final stamp of approval comes down. “When all that is done and everything is in order for the sale, then we will decide on a date for the official handover of SBC-TV to the new owners,” added the Minister. The redundancy package for the staff currently employed by the SBC- TV is basically finalized. The Minister estimated roughly around $500,000 to be spent by Government on staff redundancy salaries, when she walked unsuspectingly into the eager arms of Newsline after just ret6urning from a meeting with the SBC-TV management on the very same issue. Chief Executive Officer of the corporation, Galuemalemana Ms. Faiesea Matafeo, confirmed a staff of about 35, of which 8 are shareholders including herself who are not entitled to the salary deal. According to Minister Safuneituuga, this was agreed to at the start of negotiations. But they are entitled to unpaid annual and sick leave. CEO is unsure however if the current staff will stay with the new company, but revealed there will be a restructuring of the staff when the new company takes over. “We’re going to be ‘right-sizing’,” she quipped. Negotiations for the SBQ takeover started around November and December last year. It was dogged by media controversy, that appeared to centre around the working relationship between CEO Galumalemana and others in the staff of SBC-TV at the time. The negotiations meanwhile continued until the two parties finally agreed for SQB to acquire the popular SBC-TV and FM89.1 radio. Government will continue to hold on to the national AM radio. “The purchase price involves in station equipment, transmitters and goodwill,” Galumalemana told Newsline earlier this week. “The land, buildings and the satellite dish inside the SBC compound will be leased to SQB.” Galumalemana is adamant that the new service by the SQB will continue to remain firmly focused on local programming that will maintain the emphasis on the language and culture of Samoa. “This is an area that we will make sure is maintained when SQB takes over from the SBC.” Galumalemana also revealed that the new company will be directed by a Board of Directors, that she and everyone else on the staff will have to answer to. The national AM radio is expected to come under the Ministry of Communications. Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Email Title Comment

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