TV providers step up content war with new channels and more shows on premium channels

Two And A Half Men, if you didn’t mind watching six seasons in one week on Comedy Channel, is back. Go will be featuring Charlie Sheen’s alter-ego on its premium film channel Go Stars, which recently was made available to Go Gold subscribers until June, when Comedy Channel and Living TV were stopped from broadcasting in Malta.

A press statement for the company said the series will kick off on St Valentine’s day. “A good chance to stay home curled up on the sofa with your loved one waiting to watch episode one of the series,” the statement gushed. TAHM will be showing as a double bill Mondays to Fridays at 8:15pm, with the latest season showing on Tuesdays at 8:35pm.

Melita TV subscribers on the other hand are tuning in to premium channel Melita More after the discontinuation of Living and Comedy Channel, and the brand new Sundance Channel, a television spin-off for the Sundance Film Institute.

Melita More’s line-up is also increasing with six brand new series starting in February the BBC’s Top Gear as well as the hit American series Supernatural formerly aired on Living TV, CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother as well as Chuck and Mike & Molly, series formerly featured on Comedy Central.

A total of four complaints had been registered by the Consumer and Competition Department over the suspension of the Living TV and Comedy channels from the GO and Melita digital TV platforms, after it was found that the channels had been broadcast illegally.

“We have asked Melita and Go to stop offering our channel illegally to customers in Malta. Living is a channel licensed in the UK, exclusively for audiences in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. We do not have the rights to broadcast our programming to other territories and would not be able to offer the channel to paying Maltese audiences even if we wanted to,” a Living TV spokesman had told The Times.

Melita claims it has done nothing illegal "in terms of the content mix that it offers consumers... We still have commercial and contractual relationships with the new owners of both Living TV and Comedy Central and we broadcast more than 10 channels from their portfolios.”

The CCD investigation will establish whether the service providers had the rights to provide such service, the terms and conditions under which this service was sold, and ultimately, whether they are effectively in breach of consumer law. “If the behaviour of the service providers is effectively found to constitute an unfair commercial practice, the Directorate will act in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Consumer Affairs Act, which also empower the Director to impose an administrative fine should an infringement be found,” the CCD has said.

The CCD also wants to establish whether both companies were in breach of the agreements entered into with their paying clients and whether customers should receive refunds after the discontinuation of the mentioned channels from their respective platforms.