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 Magic Malta is a music radio station in MaltaAddress: 75 Triq San Luqa PTA1022 Pietà, Malta operated by Public Broadcasting Services, the Maltese government's public broadcaster. This station gives a big importance to music and caters to most a ...

enjoys huge popularity among local and tourist listeners.

History

PBS was founded on November 11, 1975 as Xandir Malta and became joint 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 ...

(EBU) together with the Maltese Broadcasting Authority (MBA). The latter was previously admitted as a full, active member, as Malta Television Service Ltd already has been, in 1970. Since 2003, PBS is the sole Maltese member of EBU. Prior to Xandir Malta, Rediffusion broadcast television programmes in Malta under the name The Malta Television Service Ltd. The service was run by Rediffusion, a London-based independent broadcaster. Transmissions in Malta started from

Hamrun Hamrun (; ) is a town in the Southern Region of Malta, with a population of 9,244 as of March 2014. The people The townspeople are traditionally known as ''Tas-Sikkina'' (literally meaning 'of the knife' or 'those who carry a knife') or as '' ...

on 11 November 1935 under the name of "Broadcast Relay Service Malta Ltd." Charles Whotcroft and George Powler were the first manager and chief engineer respectively. On 29 September 1962 Rediffusion (Malta) Ltd. inaugurated a television service covering the

Maltese Maltese may refer to: * Someone or something of, from, or related to Malta * Maltese alphabet * Maltese cuisine * Maltese culture * Maltese language, the Semitic language spoken by Maltese people * Maltese people, people from Malta or of Malte ...

islands.''Public Service Broadcasting in the Age of Globalization''
Indrajit Banerjee, Kalinga Seneviratne, AMIC, 2006, page 245 On 14 February 1975 the employees of the Rediffusion (Malta) Ltd staged a sit-in strike at the company's premises in Malta and they even started to run the company. On 30 July 1975 an agreement was reached between Rediffusion Group of Companies and the Dom Mintoff led Labour Party government of Malta for the transfer of all Rediffusion's assets in Malta to the Maltese government. Following the transition to digital television 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, all licensed terrestrial channels in Malta are distributed through a network of transmitters operated by PBS. These transmitters are located in Delimara ( Marsaxlokk), Nadur, Mellieħa,

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 and Portomaso (

St. Julian's Saint Julian's ( mt, San Ġiljan) is a town in the Central 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-or ...

). PBS is managed by a Board of Directors. The current Executive Charmain is Mark Sammut. Charles Dalli is the Chief Operations Officer. In 2021, they announced that the TV channels will change their logos but one changed a name as well.

Services

Radio

PBS' radio services consist of the

Radju Malta Radio Malta ( mt, Radju Malta) is the main radio service of Public Broadcasting Services, the public broadcaster of Malta. Founding The origins of Radio Malta go back to 1935. For many years, transmissions were effected on a cable-radio system ...

Radju Malta 2 Radju Malta 2 is a radio station in Malta. It is owned and operated by the Public Broadcasting Services of Malta: PBS Ltd. Broadcasting on 105.9 FM across the Maltese islands, it provides music programmes as well as cultural, scientific, artistic ...

and

radio stations. For a short period in 1975/1976 it also had an Italian-language station, called ''Radio Malta Tre''; the news were read by Anna Bonanno.

Television

PBS' television services consist of the TVM and

TVMNews+ TVMNews+ (formerly TVM 2) is a terrestrial television network in Malta, operated by national broadcaster Public Broadcasting Services. Unlike the more wide-ranging TVM network, TVMNews+ focuses primarily on newscasting and educational televi ...

television channels. It also operates the Parliament TV service under an agreement with the Parliament of Malta.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 35, 53, 31, N, 14, 29, 32, E, region:MT, display=title Television in Malta Publicly funded broadcasters European Broadcasting Union members Multilingual broadcasters Television channels and stations established in 1975 State media