Costs for English Premier League rights were not justifiable - Melita

The dramatic increase in the costs charged for the English Premier League would have been unjustifiable, Melita said in a statement.

Following Go’s announcement about its recent acquisition of the English Premier League broadcasting rights for 2010 - 12 seasons, Melita said the additional expenses for continuation of transmission beyond the current season would have translated not only into significant increases in pricing for the Melita Sports package, but also required diverting investment from its ongoing improvements in its TV programming offering and planned product enhancements.

“We approached the bidding for the Premier league in full recognition of importance that this league holds with football fans.

“With this in mind, our financial commitment was substantially higher than prior year commitments.

“We could not however justify paying a price which would require Melita to diminish the span and the quality of the services we offer to all of our customers.

“Nor could we justify reducing our plans for investment in order to upgrade our network, products and services,” CEO Andrei Torriani said.

He said that Melita remained committed to be the market leader with the most compelling television content for all of customers. It would also continue to invest in the market leading broadband services and the best value mobile and fixed telephony services in Malta.

It said that it retained the English Premier League rights until the end of the current season, and Melita Sports subscribers would still be able to follow Premier League matches on Melita until May 2010.

The company said it also held exclusive rights to other highly popular football content, including the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, Spanish Liga, Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and offered the widest range of sports programming in Malta.

Melita said it had also introduced five new channels to its current line up, including the very popular Investigation Discovery. Further expansion was planned in the next 12 months.