Melita reports strong interest in HD television
Melita TV said today that thousands of television viewers had registered their interest for its High Definition (HD) television service, which will be launched next month in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
"Since Melita announced that it will be making HD available in the Maltese Islands for the first time ever, the company has received very encouraging feedback from customers wanting to be among the first to experience HD quality."
Melita's HD content will alo include lifestyle, music, children's programmes, documentaries and movies.
Last week Melita also unveiled its new television channel line-up with the total number of channels increasing to 140, besides the 10 HD channels that will be launched soon, bringing the total available TV channels on the Melita platform to 150 channels.
Competitor GO will launch its own HD TV service today.
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Jay Spearing
Apr 23rd 2010, 00:11
I for one welcome the new channels. I know some of them are free to air on satellite but i can't get a satellite dish and receiver since i live in an apartment. Dubai One looks to be a very good movie channel and so are Lei and Jimmy with their variety of tv series. Physique TV looks also very good for enthusiasts of the sport. I would have liked more sci-fi content and sports channels in the likes of Eurosport but i don't know how many are available to be honest.
@M Meli: Zone Club is now Fine Living Network. I called customer care about it and they informed me of such brand change from Zone Club. I looked into it and it resulted to be true.
Looking forward for Melita's HD channels now! I know a thing or two about cable and DTT technologies being a telecommunications engineer myself, and with the higher available bandwidth Melita has on its cable, picture quality will always be way better than GO's.
T.gauci
Apr 21st 2010, 17:30
€199 for GO box + - so much for so little
N.Lawrence
Apr 21st 2010, 15:19
What's the point of having high quality images, when the programming content is junk!
It's like improving the lighting of one's garbage bag to make it look better.
G Darmanin
Apr 21st 2010, 15:04
I have just checked Melita's new channel lineup. They have added 48 new channels, but 29 of them (more than half) are FREE TO AIR on satellite and that includes the movie channel that Massimo Costa is reffering to! 11 from these Free To Air satellite channels are only available in Melita's most expensive package!
M Meli
Apr 21st 2010, 14:39
Melita added more channels which are of no interest to me and they took off one of my favorite channels that is Zone Club. What service??
JAFarrugia
Apr 21st 2010, 14:34
Good news but depends on the cost, channel line up is also good, the only thing i would complain about are 2 things.
Why do we get Discovery and Nat geographic adverts in Romanian??? really annoying, also programs on discovery like ''Ross Kemp search for pirates'' you have Ross interviewing a guy speaking some sort of language and no subtitles available i'm sure they are on the original program, it becomes a little pointless watching it.
@Some of the comments. Repeats are not in Melita cables hands apart from Melita More, every satelite /cable company repeats programs, try watching SKY its just repeats,Also for you the programs might be rubbish for others great, you cant please everyone, most Maltese speak Italian and in fact some of the programs are great.
Joe Fenech
Apr 21st 2010, 14:18
We'll be watching highly defined local crap!
Margaret Bencini
Apr 21st 2010, 14:16
The Sunday Times reported that GO are launching trials of HD television. Launching trials is different than launching a service...
Repeats: how is it Melita's or GO's fault if a particular channel, say Discovery Channel, decides to repeat a program? Both Melita and GO are just carriers - they do not provide the programming or the scheduling themselves.
G. Desira
Apr 21st 2010, 13:57
It would be better for the customer to reduce the price first because it is very expensive to have the mediun and the full channels.
AXuereb
Apr 21st 2010, 13:53
prezz ghadu hadd ma semma...min jaf kemm gej is servizz ee!! :/ imnalla ha jkun hawn il kompetizzjoni mill go, forsi nimmoderaw naqra l prezzijiet!!
Maurice Balzan
Apr 21st 2010, 13:52
A good start but on one condition ...No more repeats pleaseeeeeeeeee! this what made me change to a satellite in the first place.
Conrad Fenech
Apr 21st 2010, 13:22
GO HDTV service launch today? I see nothing on Go's website. Also what happened to Sky TV Malta as announced in January?
B. Zammit
Apr 21st 2010, 13:20
At the beginning of the year, the Times reported that SKY would be operating in Malta.
Does anyone have more news on this?
Conrad Fenech
Apr 21st 2010, 14:00
That is what I was wondering as well.... Virtually no information, we do not even know if they will be using satellite technology after all.
Ron Saliba
Apr 21st 2010, 17:36
SKY malta has nothing to do with sky uk/italia. It never had.
Harry Forrester
Apr 21st 2010, 13:03
'Melita also unveiled its new television channel line-up with the total number of channels increasing to 140'
i) Most of the new channels are totally useless and uninteresting, and do not differ from channels that they already had.
ii) Why did the new channels result in a complete re-numbering of the previous channels? Most of the channel numbers have changed.
iii) Melita Sports was their main strengh. I, along with many others i know, will no longer subscribe to Melita since they lost rights to Premier League, Serie A, FA Cup etc. Not many maltese are so interested in spanish and german football. Yes, there is champions league, but one cannot compare to what it has lost.
Massimo Costa
Apr 21st 2010, 13:18
Mr Forrester is right in saying that most of the new channels do not offer anything interesting. Most of them are Italian channels. Melita has added only one new movie channel. I was hoping that they would add the Crime and Investigation Network (UK), which is advertised on the History and Biography channels.
Charles Bartolo
Apr 21st 2010, 13:51
all go customers have access to HD TV equipment since the start of the year...I bet Melita will soon increase it\s rate and their excuse will be that we have added extra*uselss* channels. I have opted for go and I just do not have enough words to praise their fantastic customer service. At least it takes maximum 5 to 8 minutes to reach go and all their staff is well informed and cortious. To reach Melita it used to take me days and after you manage to reach them their staff sounded like Anne of Little Britain, wise enough to try to play the fool out of you!
Peter Korsten
Apr 21st 2010, 13:52
On the other hand, there are those who don't care a hoot about football. :)
HD sounds nice, but I would be happy if the supposedly digital signal resulted in better image quality, 16:9 on the programs and not just commercials (including films; 16:9 has been here for like 15 years, and Melita Movies still broadcasts in 4:3), and subtitles on the Discovery channels (since my command of Japanese and such leaves somewhat to be desired).
Harry Forrester
Apr 21st 2010, 14:00
@ Korsten
Yes, there are people that do not like football, but a major strength that melita enjoyed was there sports package.now that they lost it, they have lost their competitive advantage, and have not added any channels that give customers a reason to stay..
If they were to run a survey, melita would find that people do not watch approximately 70% of the channels that they offer!
Paul Vella
Apr 21st 2010, 14:35
Its about time to improve custemer services particularly in branches. Basically they are only sales outlets. Still leaves a lot to be desired regarding after sales service. By the way, I'm still waiting for a refund of the analogue box and remote control I had surrendered. As to the new channels, nothing to shout about. Why is Sky News still not featuring on the 'Large' package? As for the football, I changed my second outlet to GO. Customer service has been great. But being one of two within a duopoly....I wonder how long this will last.