Melita agrees wholeheartedly with Karm Farrugia’s letter on football rights (August 23). We are as disappointed as he is that a solution is yet to be found for content rights-sharing between pay TV operators in Malta.

On several occasions, Melita has stated that a rights-sharing arrangement is the best solution for pay TV clients and for the pay TV market in Malta. This has been the company’s position for years now, even at a time when Melita owned all the major sports content rights.

Up to just a few weeks ago, Melita was regularly urging the other licensed pay TV operator in Malta (publicly, privately and through the Malta Communications Authority) to reach a similar arrangement to those existing in other European markets.

Melita has recently undertaken initiatives with the Public Broadcasting Services on local football, European leagues and the FIFA World Cup, given that the rights-sharing model proved to be a success and beneficial to the Maltese population in general.

A few years ago, Melita had warned that this uncontrolled frenzy of bidding for sports rights would spiral out of control and only have negative effects on customers.

Unfortunately, customers are now facing this situation. Costs for these rights have exploded, pushing money away from Malta to the benefit of international leagues. As a direct result the costs for clients to watch premium sports have shot up.

With the content now being fragmented, and with higher costs, clients are being driven to consider unregulated and illegal options. Melita also agrees with Mr Farrugia’s suggestion on better market regulation and it is timely to note that the company had already expressed its support for such an initiative a few years back.

Melita would be willing to participate in discussions with the relevant authorities to iron out a pragmatic win-win solution for all parties.