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Are TV companies justified in broadcasting sports against payment?
Do you remember the time when the only access to weekly international football was “Big League Soccer” on TVM and the various RAI programmes dedicated to Italian football? Live was synonymous to parading the FM radio on a Sunday afternoon to listen to Italian commentary.
 Luckily we’ve moved on and today English, Italian, Spanish and German football is broadcast every weekend. Consumers can also enjoy a variety of other sports including live tennis, wrestling, rugby, cricket and others. Each weekend the consumer is simply spoilt for choice. Obtaining the rights for such events is an expensive endeavour and as such with choice comes along the cost of watching these events. This is the reality not only of the local market but also that of the international markets.
In the past the Maltese public also enjoyed “free-to-air” viewing of top events such as the World Cup and European Nations Cup. Either through the local broadcaster or through RAI the Maltese viewer was guaranteed to view the games of these prestigious events by paying the TV license. The changes in the market can best be described through the four following points: (1) The public broadcaster in Malta no longer considers the event as a must-have for the viewing public but as a commercial investment. Knowing how expensive it is to obtain such rights the public broadcaster has not participated in the tender process for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. (2) RAI for the first time ever has not obtained the rights for all the games of the 2006 FIFA World Cup but only to 25 games (a game a day). (3) In June 2005, a second TV network operator entered the local market. Given the competitive nature of the market, operators are obliged to bid for TV rights to give access to their subscribers to top sporting events. Not winning such rights automatically excludes our subscribers from watching these events. (4) Melita Cable, while willing to provide access of the top sporting events to its subscribers must ensure that the investments are sustainable. When possible Melita will open events to all its subscribers of its basic packages but in general the company will place such events, as has been customary over the past 15 years, on its sports channel.
Melita Cable has over the years provided access to a variety of top-end sports programming. The benefits of this choice are very evident but come at a price. If this is commercial exploitation then going to the cinemas, travelling abroad and dining out may also be considered so.
Franco Degabriele is Sales and Marketing manager for Melita Cable
In a letter he sent to the Times recently, Mr Franco Degabriele explains that “in the event that there are no local TV rights holders for an event broadcasted on a free to air channel the transmission of such an event will not be affected and the programme will be shown in the clear.”
 This means that the situation being faced by the Maltese viewing public at the moment is the result of the commercial battle between Melita and Multiplus. Prior to the entry of Multiplus in the local broadcasting scenario, Melita subscribers had liberal access to channels such as RAI, La 7 and Mediaset whenever football matches were being aired. These channels are now being blocked whenever they are broadcasting an event that has been acquired by Melita Cable. Mr Degabriele stated as much in the letter I referred to above.
These channels and others with transmission rights for sports events such as TVM and Net TV have been transmitted on Melita for years and Melita has not been paying for the retransmission.
It is evident that Melita offered a phenomenal amount to buy the transmission rights to the World Cup, for instance, to ensure that their competitors, Multiplus, stood no chance at all of acquiring these rights. Having bought the rights for a huge amount of money they are now basically forcing their subscribers to pay extra for the privilege of seeing games they would have been able to see anyway on stations available on the ‘reception’ package. This in an attempt to offset the costs involved. Subscribers are being made to pay for Melita’s attempts to make the Multiplus package less attractive.
It is pertinent to note that Multiplus general manager, Mr Anton Attard, has explained that his company was prepared to make all the World Cup games available to all Multiplus and Melita subscribers for free. He was prepared to offset the costs by means of advertising but this would not be possible for Melita due to the amount of money it paid.
Local and European legislation prohibits this kind of exclusivity and the government, through the Consumer and Competition Division, the Malta Communications Authority, the Broadcasting Authority and the Commerce Division, is actively looking into the matter.
The World Cup is mentioned specifically in the EU ‘Television without Frontiers’ Directive: ‘Member states may draw up a list of events which must be broadcast unencrypted, even if exclusive rights have been bought by pay television stations.’ All the games of the final stages of the World Cup are in the list that was drawn up by the Broadcasting Authority (Legal Notice 158 of 2000). In the ‘European Convention on Trans-Frontier Television’, which all the member states of the Council of Europe are signatory to, Article 9 states as follows: ‘Each party retains the right to take measures to ensure that a broadcaster within its jurisdiction does not broadcast on an exclusive basis events which are regarded by that party as being of major importance for society.’
I rest my case.
Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando is a Nationalist MP |
