Television providers Melita and Go have been offering Living TV “illegally”, according to a spokesman for the Living TV Group.
“They do not have any of the necessary permissions or authorisations to include Living in their packages and we are not in a position to grant them,” the spokesman said.
Go yesterday dropped Living TV and Comedy Central from its lineup after announcing some days ago it was being “forced” to do so. It had said the territorial rights for both channels could not be cleared for any Malta operators due to “international broadcasting developments”.
Melita had initially insisted talks were still ongoing with a view to keep the channels running. However, in an announcement on its website last night, it said both channels would be dropped on January 10.
“Melita have been recently informed by the channel proprietors that, due to contractual restrictions related to the content provided on these channels, they are not in a position to broadcast such channels to Malta. Melita apologise for any inconvenience caused and will shortly be announcing new channels to the current TV line up.”
Melita’s announcement came after it was asked to comment on the statements made by the spokesman of Living TV Group, which seemed to indicate a long drawn-out battle to stop transmission in Malta.
“We have asked Melita and Go to stop offering our channel illegally to customers in Malta. 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,” the Living TV spokesman said.
He added that while the company could not comment on “the exact circumstances” of Go and Melita’s decision to take it off their schedule it welcomed the announcements. Both Go and Melita would not say anything further when confronted with the Living TV comments.
No information has been forthcoming from Comedy Central. This channel, very popular in Malta, is owned by Viacom but is distributed in the UK as a joint venture with the owners of Living TV: bSkyb.
Industry sources said it was likely Comedy Central was also being asked to be removed as part of a “concerted effort by Sky to stamp out this kind of piracy”.
The sources explained why Melita and Go were technically able to distribute the two channels even if there was no arrangement in place: “The satellite footprint of most of the Astra satellites is pretty broad, which means the signals travel quite widely across Europe. If the signal can be picked up and unencrypted in Malta (which anyone with a valid Sky viewing card and set top box can do) it could potentially be retransmitted via cable to others.”
Since both affected channels are among the most popular foreign ones aired in Malta, the news that they could soon be stopped across the board has sparked many negative reactions. Several customers have called for some form of financial compensation for prepaid contracts saying they would not have signed them had these channels not been available.