TV service provider Melita has removed Living TV from its channel line-up, three weeks earlier than planned.

The moves comes two weeks after Melita’s biggest competitor, Go, removed both Living TV and Comedy Central, citing rights issues.

Melita originally said it was still trying to keep the channels on its schedule but eventually conceded it would remove them on January 10.

But while Comedy Central is still being aired, Living TV was removed on Monday and particular Melita subscribers were instead given free access to another station, Melita More, which broadcasts several TV series.

An announcement on Melita’s website read: “Due to broadcasting rights restrictions imposed by the new channel owners, Melita has been forced to cease the broadcast of Living TV with immediate effect.”

Both TV service providers have refused to react to claims by a Living TV spokesman that the Maltese operators had been broadcasting the stations illegally for years.

“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... 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 had said.

Melita and Go have also refused to comment on calls for compensation by irate customers who pointed out they had opted for pre-paid packages knowing that Living TV was recently been bought by bSkyb, which is also the UK and Ireland distributor of the American-owned Comedy Central.

It is understood that Melita and Go were asked to drop the stations as part of a concerted effort by Sky to clamp down on illegal usage, which could be an indication of plans by Sky to enter the Maltese market.