Football results but no footage on PBS

Public Broadcasting Services, the state broadcaster, will resume reporting local football results as from today although it will not air footage.

The station - which is engaged in talks with the Malta Football Association over a deadlock on fees for the right to film and broadcast Premier League matches - has decided to relax its boycott, PBS CEO Albert Debono said.

PBS, along with the political party stations Net TV and One TV, had stopped reporting matches because of the dispute.

The issue back dates to last summer, when the MFA published a bidding document proposing several packages aimed at improving the spectacle for TV viewers. PBS, Super One and Net had declined an offer to show the games jointly for Lm24,000, which was more than the stations were willing to pay. The stations then boycotted the MFA and refused to even broadcast results.

A number of live games were broadcast on cable TV following an agreement with the MFA when the football season started last September. Since then no results or footage have been aired by the three stations.

Last month, PBS started reporting the results of encounters involving the national team.

Talks with the MFA, Mr Debono said, were still ongoing, explaining that no footage of the games will be broadcast because the station had not bought the rights for such a service.