The national station may not take part in this year’s Malta Television Awards because of issues with the organisers over rules and regulations, although talks are under way to try and settle the matter.
The problem stopped a number of production houses from submitting their nominations, forcing the organisers to extend the deadline to tomorrow.
Public Broadcasting Services head of programmes Reuben Zammit said the station was “looking forward to participating” and insisted the station was not boycotting the event.
However, PBS had pending issues with the organisers which it wanted to solve before it officially confirmed its participation.
“We are not comfortable with the rules and regulations as they were in the past. If the discussions lead nowhere, I don’t think PBS will be there,” he said.
If PBS pulls out of the awards, the race will be between the television stations owned by the two political stations, One TV and Net TV, apart from smaller television stations such as Favourite Channel.
The changes are being sought in the wake of what happened at last year’s event when the most coveted award, the TV Station of the Year Award, was won by One TV, although this station and TVM had bagged the same number of awards on the night.
Referring to an e-mail he sent to TVM programme producers, Mr Zammit said: “Since there were these problems, all I told them is to hold their horses and not waste time on their nominations, since these take a lot of time to put together.
“We have no intention of boycotting it but these issues must be settled. The final decision on whether the station will participate or not lies with the board of directors and the management,” he said.
“We want a level playing field and wish things to be more transparent and done in a better way.”
He also complained about the deadline extension saying if these issues were not ironed out producers would not have enough time to prepare their submissions.
Asked what the station was proposing, Mr Zammit said PBS would like to see more weight given to the programmes produced by the stations.
“We also proposed the inclusion of more awards such as best fashion programme and best motoring programme, as well as best male and female newscasters,” he said, adding it might be too late in the day to introduce such awards.
This was the view of Noelene Miggiani, director of Mermaid Media Entertainment Ltd that organises the awards, who said discussions were under way with PBS to settle the pending issues.
“We agreed with the majority of their (PBS) suggestions. We conceded a lot and took up most of the suggestions but it would be impossible to introduce some of their proposals now,” she said when contacted.
Ms Miggiani said her company got to know about the problem “through the grapevine” when some producers contacted her to ask what had happened, “presumably after they had received the e-mail”.
Asked to be more specific about the station’s requests, Ms Miggiani said PBS proposed changes to the way the Station of the Year Award was awarded, asking for more weight to be given to the awards that stations win in the field of programmes.
“As far as I know, PBS is not boycotting. That was the starting point but since discussions started, this position has changed. There is enough goodwill from both parties for a solution to be found and I am confident it will be found,” she said.
When contacted, a producer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the awards without PBS were not national awards.
“The awards without PBS will be a major failure since most of us producers are not on the other stations but only on TVM. It would turn into another political contest between One and Net. Many good productions will be excluded. It’s like organising the Oscars without Hollywood!”