TV awards postponed indefinitely

The Malta Television Awards have been postponed “by a few months” after two of the three main stations pulled out at the eleventh hour leaving just Labour’s One TV and the small stations in the running.

No date has been set, but the organisers said in the coming days they would be appointing a special board to iron out the issues between all parties.

The board will be made up of representatives from each television station and chaired by a competent person chosen by the board itself.

“This will ensure, once again, the credibility of the organisers who emphasised its importance in the past years,” organisers Mermaid Media Entertainment said.

The decision, taken after an urgent meeting yesterday, follows days of failed attempts to resolve the differences between the awards’ directors and state television station PBS before the submissions’ deadline expired. The organisers said a total 270 entries had been submitted.

PBS withdrew after failing to see eye to eye with the organisers over rules and regulations. Seeing this, the Nationalist Party’s station, Net TV, also withdrew from the competition because it felt it could not compete in a national contest without a main player.

The “special board” tasked with finding the way forward has failed to impress PBS and its CEO Anton Attard said when contacted yesterday that PBS was “not interested” in this proposed set-up, unless the Broadcasting Authority was involved.

“We believe the awards, the judges, the rules and regulations, and all the organisation processes should be overseen by the Broadcasting Authority,” Mr Attard said.

Reacting to One Productions chairman Jason Micallef’s comment – who on Friday accused him of “managing PBS as if it were Net TV” – Mr Attard said Mr Micallef knew very well that “conflicts of interest were involved that could have affected the credibility of the awards”. He would not elaborate further.

Mermaid Media Entertainment directors have expressed disappointment at PBS’s reaction. They felt its decision not to get involved with the awards because it failed to introduce a category for the Best Fashion Programme “did not merit” such a response.

PBS, they said, had insisted the organisers introduce a Best Fashion Programme category when this genre was already catered for under Best Lifestyle Programme.

The organisers said adding another award was unnecessary since the list of categories was already long enough and its inclusion would only “benefit a particular producer”.

The organisers said following various meetings with PBS, compromises were reached on many points brought forward by the state broadcaster, with the exception of the fashion award.

When questioned about this, Mr Attard denied PBS had pulled out simply because of the fashion award, saying there were other reasons.

He added that during the discussions, the organisers had always agreed with the issues and concerns raised by PBS, which had also been informed that a person had been dismissed over last year’s mistakes.