TV rights for Maltese football

In the last few months the issue of sports TV rights has resurfaced and this time round the centre stage has been taken up by TV rights in relation to local football. In the past Maltese football enthusiasts could follow the top national league on TV through the various programmes produced by the national broadcaster or Super 1 and Net TV. These programmes were very popular as they provided the sporting public with the only access to local football coverage. Some TV stations also provided coverage of minor leagues. All three TV stations provided ample coverage of the games of the national football team, at times even when the national team played away to mightier opposition.

This summer the Malta Football Association (MFA) issued an open tender for TV rights including, for the first time, a package for live coverage of football games of the national league and national team home fixtures on pay TV. The package also included TV rights for free-to-air broadcasters similar to what the broadcasters were used to in the past, but with the knowledge that a number of games would be broadcast live on a pay-TV system.

It so transpired that the MFA and the consortium of private and state owned TVs started a tug-of-war over the acquisition of such rights. Although not known with precision it seems that the MFA has set an asking price for these rights similar to what the TV stations paid in the past while the TV stations came in with a bid which was much lower than this. As the commercial negotiations failed and a compromise solution was not found, the three TV stations, by far the most popular source of TV for the Maltese public, decided to boycott the events of the MFA in their entirety.

Now this is where we should ask the competent authorities, namely the Broadcasting Authority and the editorial team of the national broadcaster, to intervene.

While private TV stations have every right to boycott and omit news relative to Maltese football as they invest their own money into their TV schedules, not the same can be said for the national broadcaster, PBS, that has a social function of providing the Maltese public with an unbiased view of news and all that is considered newsworthy. No commercial deal or lack thereof can suddenly turn a newsworthy item, such as Malta beating Hungary 2-1 and achieving the first home game win in a Euro qualifier and the first win in an international competition for 13 years, into a non-issue and not worthy of a news item. Despite the fact that all other media including print, internet and radio covered the story, PBS did not even mention this item in any of its news bulletins.

This is an irresponsible manner of running the national TV station and the editorial board of the station should look into the matter with immediate effect and act. PBS is not yours to dispose of, it's the station of the public and worthy investments should be made for content that the Maltese public like to watch or demand to watch. The saga of the World Cup may have been tolerated because the investments involved were substantial and possibly beyond the reach of a TV station that is considering its bottom line (rightly so) as an important factor in running the station. However, the national league TV rights are affordable for a national broadcaster, especially if we are made to believe that the TV rights for the national league are to the tune of Lm6,000, at most Lm12,000 per annum.

Audiences today can get their fair share of football, even local football, through the minnow of TV stations, namely Smash TV. Yet, it is unacceptable for all those that have Maltese football at heart that our national TV station completely ignores items of national importance such as coverage of the national football team home games and to add insult to injury does not even comment in any way, shape or form on the games of the national team during the sports news.

I do not really care if PBS is putting its finances in check;I actually think that this is a welcomed change from the "money no problem" attitude of the past.

Yet the public officials running the TV station must remember that this is not their TV station and they have no right to deprive the national public at large from coverage of stories of issues of national importance. When is this going to change, we all ask?