Airwaves in the sports arena

Following the acquisition of the 2006 FIFA World Cup rights by Melita Cable, the issue of sports TV rights has been discussed in various quarters. A number of letters have been posted in The Times regarding this and related TV sports rights issues. Among other things, Melita has been criticised for blocking Rai during a UEFA Cup encounter. In response to these letters Melita Cable would like to forward the following three scenarios that best describe the prevailing situation in the TV market in Malta.

Scenario 1
TV events bought exclusively by a third party.

Since the introduction of formal competition in the local TV distribution market there have been instances where TV rights for certain events have been purchased on an exclusive basis by our competitor (Multiplus). In the event that programmes are bought exclusively by a third party, Melita has no right to retransmit that programme and, accordingly, has no option but to refrain from retransmitting that particular event. This has happened thus far with the transmission of a number of Serie A games on the Bravo Channel as well as the UEFA Cup fixtures between Roma v Club Brugge and Palermo v Slavia Praha.

Scenario 2
TV events bought exclusively by Melita Cable.

Melita buys exclusive events with the knowledge that any foreign broadcaster carrying such an event is obliged to encrypt the TV signal. Our experience shows that sometimes the foreign broadcasters do encrypt and sometimes they do not. Melita, as the exclusive rights holder, is the only entity in Malta authorised to retransmit the event in Malta.

The basis of the decision to open an event to non-premium subscribers, such as has been done with Champions League (Real Madrid v Arsenal on February 21 and Werder Bremen v Juventus on February 21) is a commercial one. Melita also communicated that it will open up 21 of the 64 FIFA World Cup games on its Information Channel in June/July 2006.

Melita is more than willing to invest in these high profile events since this is the only manner by which its subscribers are given access to these events. This is the result of competition. If these events are bought by a competing platform, Melita subscribers would not have the possibility of watching these events, on our network. Exclusive sports TV rights for events such as Formula 1, FIFA World Cup and UEFA Champions League cost a lot of money. As such it is financially impossible for the company to offer all the events it has acquired on its basic services.

The company will on a case-by-case basis decide whether to open the events to all its subscribers but has no option but to block the transmission of the channels, such as Mediaset, La 7 and Rai, whenever these channels are broadcasting an event that has been acquired by Melita Cable (or any other entity) in Malta.

Scenario 3
TV events that have not been bought by any company.

In the event that there are no local TV rights holders for an event broadcasted on a free-to-air channel, the transmission of such an event will not be affected and the programme will be shown in the clear.

Melita Cable is the leading sports programming provider in Malta holding the exclusive rights to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Formula 1, Barclays English Premier League, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga, FA Cup, Carling Cup, Coca-Cola Championship, select games of the Italian Serie A, ATP Master Series, Wimbledon and Wrestling. A milestone in Malta was set last week with the live broadcasting of four simultaneous live transmissions of the UEFA Champions League.

May I take this opportunity on behalf of Melita to offer sincere regrets for the inconvenience caused to all those customers who have tried to contact the company in the past weeks but have found it hard to speak to any of our representatives. This has been due mainly to the overwhelming demand for the Sports Ticket.