Television in Malta was first introduced in 1957. The first person to sell televisions in Malta was The Most Noble Count Consiglio D'Amato.

History

The first television that could be watched were

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

broadcasts from Sicily. In 1962, TVM was launched as a Maltese public broadcaster by the

Public Broadcasting Services Public Broadcasting Services Limited (PBS) is the public broadcaster of Malta. PBS is funded by government grants and the sale of commercial airtime. Its TVM channel is Malta's most watched television channel, and its radio station Magic Malta ...

. TVM remains the most popular channel in the country and is a member of the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...

. In 1991 the government opened the television market to more stations, but rather than allow private companies, they initially gave licenses to the two main political parties and the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Malta The Archdiocese of Malta (Malti: ''Arċidjoċesi ta' Malta'') is a metropolitan archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church in Malta. History Tradition claims that St. Paul the Apostle established the diocese of Malta in the year 60 A. ...

. The Labour Party's television network

One 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

remains the second most popular network, while the

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

-controlled NET Television is the third most popular. Today there are also three private channels

Smash Television Smash Television is a Maltese television station. Smash is privately owned and maintains a neutral editorial position in which different opinions on Maltese politics are expressed. It remains much smaller than the older stations. See also *Televi ...

, fLiving Channel and Xejk - currently transmitted by digital terrestrial, free-to-air signals. Smash, the largest commercial TV station, attracts an audience of 2%. Cable, terrestrial and satellite reception are all available, though the cable service is the most diffused, with

Melita Cable Melita Limited, formerly Melita Cable, is a Maltese telecommunications company established in 1992. It is a quadruple play provider that provides cable television, mobile telephone, broadband Internet, and fixed-line telephone services. Melita w ...

. The Malta Communications Authority reported that there were 147,896 pay TV subscriptions active at the end of 2012, which includes analog and digital cable, pay digital terrestrial TV and IPTV. For reference the latest census counts 139,583 households in Malta. Satellite reception is available to receive other European TV networks such as

and

Mediaset Mediaset Italia S.p.A., also known as Mediaset, is an Italian-based mass media company which is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country. The company is controlled by the holding company MFE - MediaForEurope. Founded in 1987 by former ...

from

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. The

Broadcasting Authority Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

supervises all local broadcasting stations and ensures their compliance with

legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

and licence obligations as well as the preservation of due impartiality; in respect of matters of

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

or industrial controversy or relating to current public policy; while fairly apportioning broadcasting facilities and time between persons belong to different political parties. The Broadcasting Authority ensures that local broadcasting services consist of public, private and community broadcasts that offer varied and comprehensive programming to cater for all interests and tastes.

Digital

Two commercial terrestrial television licences were awarded in 2005 to Multiplus Ltd and Maltacom (now GO). In July 2005, Multiplus Ltd started commercial operations in direct competition to the existing dominant cable operator Melita utilising a total of 8 frequencies. Multiplus was acquired by GO in February 2007.

Digital switchover

Malta transitioned terrestrial broadcasts to

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...

using the

DVB-T DVB-T, short for Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial, is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in Singapore in Febr ...

standard in October 2011. In preparation for the transition, the Malta Broadcasting Authority developed a General Interest Objectives classification to determine which existing terrestrial channels would be assigned to the

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

s of the new digital free-to-air broadcasting system. Free-to-air television in Malta is distributed through a network of transmitters operated by the

national broadcaster Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

in Delimara (

Marsaxlokk Marsaxlokk () is a small, traditional fishing village in the South Eastern Region of Malta. It has a harbour, and is a tourist attraction known for its views, fishermen and history. As at March 2014, the village had a population of 3,534. The ...

Nadur Nadur ( mt, In-Nadur) is an administrative unit of Malta, located in the eastern part of the island of Gozo. Nadur is built on a plateauand is one of the largest localities in Gozo. Known as the 'second city', it spreads along a high ridge to ...

Mellieħa Mellieħa ( mt, il-Mellieħa ) is a large village in the Northern Region of Malta. It has a population of 10,087 as of March 2014. Mellieħa is also a tourist resort, popular for its sandy beaches and natural environment. Etymology The name ''M ...

Mtarfa Mtarfa ( mt, L-Imtarfa) is a small town in the Northern Region of Malta, with a population of 2,572 as of March 2014. It was considered to be a suburb of Rabat until 2000, when it became a separate local council. History A number of historic s ...

Naxxar Naxxar ( mt, In-Naxxar) is a small city in the Northern Region of Malta, with a population of 14,891 people as of March 2014. The Naxxar Church is dedicated to Our Lady of Victories. The annual village feast is celebrated on 8 September. Naxx ...

and Portomaso ( St. Julian's). Since 2017, all terrestrial channels are carried as

s of

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

channel 43. Previously they were carried on UHF channel 66. The channels licensed for free-to-air digital broadcast are TVM, TVMNews+, Parliament TV,

, NET Television,

F Living F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. His ...

, and Xejk.

References

{{Television in Europe