Sky Malta should start operating later on this year, Paul Hili, one of the shareholders in this new business venture told The Times Business.

With this new player in the market competition in the digital TV service sector is set to intensify in a major challenge to the two service providers currently in operation, Melita and Go.

Mr Hili dismissed as untrue a report in another section of the press that Sky Malta intended to tell the Malta Communications Authority that Go and Melita will not be able to enjoy the exclusivity rights on sports events since Sky already had such rights.

Competition between Go and Melita has been fierce with Go announcing last month that it had acquired the exclusive television rights for the English Premier League and Italian Serie A football games as from next season. The rights are today held by Melita.

Besides Mr Hili other shareholders of Sky Malta include members of the Bianchi Group as well as two former senior executives of the Vodafone Group, Julian Horn-Smith and Andre Skol.

Mr Hili told The Times Business that Franco de Gabriele is to be the CEO of Sky Malta. Mr de Gabriele has extensive experience in the telecom and media industry having held various executive positions with Go, the iWorld Group, Melita Cable and most recently SmartCity Malta.

Mr Hili also said discussions on Sky Malta were being held with the Malta Communications Authority.

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