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 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 Malt ...

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

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

. 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 Labour Party's television network

One 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

remains the second most popular network, while the

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

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

Mediaset Mediaset S.p.A. is an Italian mass media and television production and distribution company that is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country. The company is controlled by the holding company MFE – MediaForEurope (the original ...

from

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The

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

supervises all local broadcasting stations and ensures their compliance with

legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a Socia ...

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

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

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 signal, digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an ...

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 Fe ...

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

in Delimara (

Marsaxlokk Marsaxlokk () is a small, traditional fishing village in the Southern Region, Malta, Southern Region of Malta. It has a harbour, and is a tourist attraction known for its views, fishing and history. As of March 2014, the village had a populati ...

Nadur Nadur () is an Local councils of Malta, administrative unit of Malta, located in the eastern part of the island of Gozo. Nadur is built on a plateau and is one of the largest localities in Gozo. Known as the 'second city', it spreads along a h ...

, Mellieħa, Mtarfa,

Naxxar Naxxar () is a town and local council in the Northern Region of Malta. The population in March 2014 was 14,891. The Naxxar Church is dedicated to Our Lady of Victories. The annual village feast is celebrated on 8 September. It formerly hoste ...

and Portomaso (

St. Julian's Saint Julian's () is a town in the Eastern Region of Malta. As of 2020, its registered number of inhabitants stands at 13,792. It is situated along the coast, north of the country's capital, Valletta. It is known for tourism-oriented businesse ...

). 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 ...

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, Smash Television, F Living, and Xejk. Spillover from Sicily decreased when its analogue signals were switched off, as digital signals coming from there are much weaker.Analogue TV is dead: Long live digital TV!
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References

{{Television in Europe

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

History

Digital

Digital switchover

See also

References