Poor television reception in the North over the past three weeks has raised the eyebrows of the consumer watchdog, which has asked why the television company took about a month to fix the problem.
Consumer Council chief executive Premila Kumar has questioned why it took Fiji Television three weeks to notify the viewers in the North.
"Why didn't they explain earlier to the viewers about the poor reception experienced which has reached a stage now of no programs shown at all on the TV," she asked.
"The complaints lodged at their office via telephone from the people in the North and in the Letters to the Editor in the newspapers should have made them realise that they needed to notify the viewers."
She said complaints had also been lodged at her office which resulted in her brief discussion with the company representatives this week.
"We had a discussion with them and I told them that they needed to notify their consumers and that should have been done earlier," she said.
"Fiji TV needs to be more customer focused and the delay in notifying the northern viewers only shows how they value the people of the North and that's not how customers are to be treated."
She said the company had a role to play in servicing the free-to-air channel and whether there was a transmission problem or any other kinds of fault, viewers should at no time, be deprived of the services.
"That is part of the licence and the free-to-air service should always be maintained to the customers irrespective of the situation because their licence expects them to do so," Mrs Kumar said.
Fiji TV corporate manager Tamarisi Digitaki said there was a technical fault at the station in Delaikoro, Cakaudrove where the company station sits. "And our biggest challenge was to have the spare parts arrive on time from overseas but that has not happened so that contributed to the length of time in which the TV programs were not aired.
"So our technicians have come up with another option while waiting for the parts to arrive and by tomorrow afternoon (today), the programs will be back to normal in the free-to-air service channel," Ms Digitaki said.
She said they notified the viewers through their website, radio and emailed advertisers as soon the problem was experienced.
