Last meeting this week

An eight-month inquiry into whether telecoms companies Melita and Go violated consumer rights when they removed two popular channels from their line-up last year is expected to draw closer to its conclusion this week.

The inquiry was ordered in December after a spokesman for Living TV said that Melita and Go had been broadcasting the channel “illegally”.

Irate customers questioned why they were charged for channels for which the providers did not pay and some demanded compensation, arguing they agreed to prepaid packages when Living TV and Comedy Central were still available.

Back then, Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said ordered an inquiry and promised a preliminary outcome within “a few days”. This did not happen and in April Dr Said had said the inquiry would be concluded “soon”.

Sources said the process took so long because it required the scanning and analysis of various complex contracts and laws as well as the submissions of both companies.

Now, a more concrete time frame has been given.

“Over the last few months, the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority held 10 separate meetings with Go and Melita. Both companies had ample time to submit their views. A final meeting will be held next week,” a spokesman for Dr Said told The Times. “The final decision will be communicated to the public soon after,” he added.

The issue erupted at the end of last year when both providers announced they would have to remove Living TV and Comedy Central from their line-ups because broadcasting rights could not be cleared for Malta.

The spokesman of Living TV – which is owned by the same company that distributes Comedy Central in the UK – had said: “Living is a channel licensed in the UK, exclusively for audiences in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. We do not have the rights to broadcast our programming to other territories and would not be able to offer the channel to paying Maltese audiences even if we wanted to.”

Nationalist MP David Agius had accused Melita and Go of “taking customers for a ride” and said customers deserved compensation.

In January, Melita chief executive officer Andrei Torriani denied that any channels were broadcast illegally and said the matter was blown out of proportion after Living TV was acquired by BSkyB from Virgin Media. “When BSkyB took ownership of the channel, they decided to change the content and in their strategy informed Melita that it would have been illegal to continue to broadcast it. Somehow the entire issue was blown out of proportion to the extent that there were suggestions we were breaking the law,” Mr Torriani said. Industry sources had said it was likely the request to remove Comedy Central was part of a “concerted effort by Sky to stamp out this kind of piracy”.