Is PBS fulfilling its public service mission?

Public Broadcasting Services launched its winter schedule yesterday amid a debate over whether its television programmes should be farmed and whether this is being done at the expense of its public service mission.

In two separate speeches, Prof. Dominic Fenech, PBS editorial board acting chairman, and PBS chief executive Albert Debono openly disagreed on the issue.

Prof. Fenech said PBS should bear in mind that its clients were the public who paid taxes to keep it running, and not production houses.

In a frank speech, he said that due to the company's system of farming out programmes, production houses had developed such strong roots within PBS that its negotiating power was "somehow restricted".

"Sometimes, financial constraints push PBS to take certain decisions. If a programme makes money, it's hard to manoeuvre and ratings have become sacrosanct, when these alone should not be everything," he said.

"For example it was hard to find an adequate slot for a current affairs programme run by the newsroom. I feel there should be a balance between our public service mission and ratings," he suggested.

Prof. Fenech said that if PBS eventually had its own advertising and marketing department it could recover control over its programmes and would not need to sell airtime.

Taking the opportunity to call for the appointment of a permanent chairman of the editorial board, a post that has been vacant for a year, Prof. Fenech stressed the importance of quality. He hoped that production companies were slowly moving away from the ingrained mentality that for the Maltese, anything goes.

"The public is paying taxes and deserves a product of a high quality. Sadly, the way things stand, due to financial constraints the client of PBS is not always the public, but production houses. We have to work to change this situation," Prof. Fenech said.

"We need to strike a balance between our public service mission and ratings."

His argument was openly contested by Mr Debono who believed that a balance had been struck between financial feasibility and quality programmes, as could be witnessed in the new schedule.

"First let us be sustainable. The beauty of PBS is that there isn't a shareholder, which gives us the possibility of reinvesting the money into programmes that address the public service mission," he said.

PBS chairman Joe Fenech Conti said that PBS had always been dogged by controversies, and conflicting opinions were always bubbling at the surface "as could be witnessed here today".

He said that PBS was giving the public a lot with little money and its goals were to continue changing and moving ahead to upgrade its newsroom and premises.

Discussing the new winter schedule, Mr Debono said that Maltese audiences had an enormous choice and they enjoyed exercising it.

"We need to be tuned into their lives, understand them better and build fantastic relationships with them around relevant, quality content," he said.

The new schedule of TVM includes a number of new educational and cultural programmes such as Arani Issa - Malta's very own nip 'n' tuck show -Liquorish, a reality show of extreme adventure in India.

The popular motoring programme Paq Paq and the fashion magazine show Modern Lifestyles are back on TVM on the weekends.

A new breakfast show is being introduced, while more than 20 new childrens' programmes will be featured.

TVM has also recommissioned the programmes that viewers love such as Xarabank, Becky, Showtime, Bondi Plus, the health and fitness programme Kilo, Tista' Tkun Int and Qalb in-Nies.

Fans of reality television can look forward to a new and improved series of L-iSpjun from January.