The F Living Show, presented by Karl and Romina Bonaci, is ranked second at 2.8%, a remarkable achievement for the independent TV station F Living considering it is competing against media houses owned by the state and the country’s two largest political parties.

NET Live, the PN media house’s flagship evening discussion show, is third at 1.5%.

TVM’s L-Erbgħa Fost il-Ġimgħa was previously ranked as Malta’s most popular discussion show but the show’s host Mark Laurence Zammit quit the show earlier this year, citing excess interference from TVM, and has since joined Times of Malta.

Prior to L-Erbgħa Fost il-Ġimgħa, Xarabank was Malta’s most popular TV discussion show for decades before it was suddenly axed last year .

The BA’s latest survey also shows that TVMNews+, the national broadcaster’s new TV station for current events, sports, culture and art programmes, is hugely unpopular.

A measly 2.9% of respondents said they follow TVMNews+, below the independent TV station F Living (3.3%) and just above Xejk (2%). In contrast, TVM was ranked at 44.3%, foreign stations at 43.6%, ONE TV at 22.4% and NET TV at 12.8%.

It also means that TVMNews+ is actually less popular than its predecessor TVM2, which scored 5.3% at the BA’s audience survey last May.

The discussion shows on TVMNews+ are all rated way lower than both Pjazza and the F Living Show, with Xtra ranked at 0.5%, Topik at 0.3%, Insights and Realta’ at 0.1% and TVAM not registering at all.  

TVM’s news bulletin remains the most popular programme overall, selected by 9.3% of respondents, while the drama Nostalġija and the music competition X Factor Malta are joint second with 7.3%.

Are you surprised by these findings?