ONE TV’s most popular show by far is Liquorish, with the travel show selected by 8.2% of respondents, making it the third most popular programme in Malta overall – behind only the TVM news bulletin and the variety show Serataron.

In contrast, NET’s most popular programme is its news bulletin, chosen by 4.1% of overall respondents. This makes NET’s news bulletin the most popular current affairs programme aired by a political party media station, ahead of ONE’s news bulletin (chosen by 3.5% of respondents) and Pjazza (chosen by 2.2%).

From its survey response, the Broadcasting Authority calculated that ONE TV’s average viewership ranges from a high of 8,463 daily viewers on Monday (which is also when Liquorish airs) to a low of 2,768 on Friday. NET TV goes from a high of 4,900 daily viewers on Monday to a low of 1,877 on Friday.

However, despite trailing ONE on practically all fronts on TV and radio, NET is somehow more popular online.

NET’s website is actually the fifth most popular platform for Maltese programmes online, chosen by 7.4% of respondents, compared to a mere 1.4% who chose ONE.

And when asked for their preferred local news portal, 2.6% of respondents chose NET while 2.2% chose ONE. 

The future of political party-owned TV stations has been a topic of national discussion in recent months, with Lovin Malta filing a constitutional case, arguing that they have a constitutional obligation to be impartial.

This legal argument was recently backed by a judiciary panel conducting a panel inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Do you follow ONE and NET?