New Agreement Ensures Free Television Access In Malta For The Next Ten Years
Malta’s free-to-air’ television service provides access to news, information, programs and entertainment from local free to air channels. Maltese and Gozitan citizens will continue to enjoy basic access to these channels free of charge thanks to a new agreement signed between PBS Ltd and GO plc.
This agreement ensures that every Maltese and Gozitan citizen has basic access to television without payment.
The agreement was signed during a press conference with a coherent and inclusive plan to support and extend transmission services through aerial to ensure that Maltese and Gozitan families can continue to enjoy this right.
By means of this agreement GO plc will continue to provide the technical infrastructure for this service for the next 10 years, with an investment of 1.5 million euros.
This comes after a recent qualitative research exercise to establish the current use of the traditional “aerial” service by various families and individuals in order to eventually create a long-term plan for the coming years, which is being realised through this agreement.
In all there were in excess of 4,000 families who, during the recent qualitative research exercise, stated that they make use of the aerial service to watch free to air channels. More than half of those reported that they make use of the aerial service together with other services.
Minister for Local Government Owen Bonnici stated that the Government believes it should support this public service, which provides a guarantee of universal access for everyone without exclusion and with a diversity of local station programming.
PBS Ltd will remain as the operator for this “free-to-air” service on UHF Channel 43, which requires local station “multiplex” service to enjoy the status of a general interest objective (GIO). There are a total of eight local stations.
In recent weeks, changes have been made in the existing network to ensure the sustainability of the service in the coming years without interruption.
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