One News and Net News are set to go head to head from October following the Nationalist Party’s decision to switch its news bulletin to 7.30pm.

Sources close to the PN told The Sunday Times of Malta that the decision is part of the restructuring programme, which aims to make the financially-stricken party media financially viable. The same sources said that as part of this plan, usage of the station’s television studios at its headquarters in Pietà will be restricted to minimise costs. With a few exceptions all studio-based programmes, especially those in the afternoon bracket, will be broadcast from private production houses.

Apart from producing the daily news bulletin, the station’s facilities will also used to produce a new current affairs programme with the involvement of the party’s newsroom. The programme, aired from Monday to Friday between 6pm and 8.30pm, will incorporate the news bulletins and have an in-depth analysis of the day’s events.

Sources said the future of the television station may well hinge on the success of this show, which is being marketed as a “totally new concept” for the local broadcasting scene.

Replay and Iswed fuq l-Abjad are among the handful of in-house programmes which have survived the cut.

While some may interpret the decision to switch the main news bulletin as a gamble, especially with next year’s MEP elections looming on the horizon, others will point out that viewers are set to lose out as they will no longer be able to hear ‘both sides of the story’.

Contrary to the One News bulletin which has always kept its evening time slot fixed since the station opening in 1994, Net News which first went on the air at the height of the 1998 political crisis, was initially slotted in at 8.15pm.

However, this time bracket was short lived and after some months the party decided to shift it to its current 7.45pm time slot.

In an interview with this newspaper last month, PN general secretary Chris Said said the party’s printing press will be closed after more than 40 years of operations, as it is more viable to outsource the printing of its newspapers. Another target was to start breaking even by the end of next month.

With the restructuring process well under way, sources close to the PN administration said they were fairly confident this target would be met.

However, this was of little consolation to the company’s employees, especially those who have not been paid since May.

Though they have been told by the management they will be paid on time from the end of next month, they are struggling to make ends meet.

With another month looming with no cash in hand, employees who spoke to this newspaper said their situation was now close to breaking point.