Public Broadcasting Services has said that the loss of the live feed during Sunday’s shoot-off for a bronze medal in the double trap competition at the Commonwealth Games – with Maltese shooter Nathan Xuereb in action – was due to circumstances beyond its control.

Writing to The Malta Independent following a story carried on this portal, Peter Cossai, PBS manager sports, said that the national broadcasting station has a commercial agreement with the Games organising committee for a comprehensive coverage of the events in two one-hour highlight programmes every day.

The programmes cover most top events but not the qualifying sessions, Mr Cossai said.

The double-trap competition was split in two, a qualifying session in the morning and the final stage in the afternoon. Despite not falling under the contract stipulated, PBS reached an agreement with the organisers for both sessions to be shown live for free, given that they were the best chance that Malta could win a medal.

The finals however overran the scheduled time and the host broadcasters changed the satellite frequencies during shoot-off for the bronze medal in which Nathan Xuereb was in action, and this led to a loss of the feed until the new frequencies were locked, Mr Cossai said.

PBS said it regretted the inconvenience but stressed the situation was beyond its control. It added that it requested a repeat of the feed and the shoot-off was shown in one of the highlight programmes in the evening.

 

PBS loses live feed during shoot-off