30 Jun 2010

American Samoa's Manu'a to get digital tv transmission

10:24 am on 30 June 2010

Digital television transmission to the Manu'a Islands in American Samoa will soon become a reality.

This follows the approval of 300,000 US dollars for the Office of Public Information, which operates the government owned KVZK-TV.

The funding comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The application for funding states that KVZK TV, having recently been converted to Digital TV, is no longer able to be received and re-transmitted by Manu'a translators, which are analog.

The project calls for retrofitting the Manu'a translators with digital units and will provide Manu'a with four separate streams of programming letting the Manu'a group see daily news and information, including Emergency Alert System alerts.

The American Samoa Department of Education has requested the use of one of the four streams to provide distance learning to the Manu'a islands.