One TV, the Labour Party’s television channel, could be staking a claim to become the most popular station on the islands, at points beating out the National broadcaster and utterly trouncing its political rival, Net TV, in a survey by the Broadcast Authority.

Over the whole week, One TV had the largest average number of viewers, narrowly edging out TVM, scoring 2.217% to TVM’s 2.205%.

TVM still has a strong presence in the media landscape, with strong showings on particular nights. Massive staples like Xarabank mean TVM still attains the largest percentage of audience reach at 34.79%, while One stands at 20.12%.

Net TV, on the other hand, gets just 7.96% of the total audience reach. Meanwhile, young people are staying firmly away from this station, and indeed NET TV was the only station which didn’t register a single viewer between the ages of 12 and 20 in November.

However, while TVM has technically attracted more viewers than One, the figures show that viewers spent more time following the PL’s media channel [One: 2.64hrs/viewer; TVM: 1.49hrs/viewer].

Labour Party media is also growing in influence in other sectors, with their radio station the second most popular channel on the islands, behind 89.7 Bay.

A full copy of the survey can be found here.

Party media is often subject to intense criticism in Malta, with opponents arguing that it serves as a propaganda vehicle for the political parties.

Recently, the PN officially called for all party media to be shut down, with the implementation of a sustained effort to ensure the independence of the National Broadcaster, TVM.

The attempt has been shot down by Labour Party officials, who argue that the PN’s proposal has only appeared because of the ever-growing irrelevance and financial difficulties of Net.