Xarabank presenter Peppi Azzopardi yesterday said there is no point having what some people term as “quality” programmes on television if nobody watches them.

Speaking during a Q&A session at the launch of a study published by the Broadcasting Authority titled ‘Quality in Television Broadcasting - The Televiewers’ Perspective,’ Mr Azzopardi expressed his hope that programmes that people really want to see will receive funding.

“Programmes are meant to be watched by people. It is a serious problem if there are so‐called quality programmes that no one sees. No one makes money in television, you actually rack up debts. People don’t understand this,” Mr Azzopardi said.

Referring to findings in the study that many viewers are put off by the amount of adverts shown during television programmes, Mr Azzopardi said producers take no pleasure in becoming “prostitutes” by selling airtime for adverts.

He questioned the sense in the government funding unpopular “high-brow” programmes, and the popular ones having to fend for themselves.

One TV chairman Jason Micallef spoke of a “crisis in broadcasting,” saying that all local television stations are in some form of debt.

He warned that cost –cutting measures will only lead to reductions in programme quality.

Presenting the findings of the BA study, Professor Marilyn Clark and Dr Joanna Spiteri highlighted that the quality of certain news bulletins and programmes leaves much to be desired, but there have been huge strides in the quality of local dramas.

They acknowledged that the term “quality” implies a certain amount of subjectivity.

A number of audience focus groups lamented “biased and unreliable” quality of news programmes on the political stations.

“The Labour station (One) reports what the Labour Party wants to say. The Nationalist Part station (Net) reports what they want to say, but TVM should not be the middle ground but rather report the truth,” one male viewer said in the focus group.

A numbers of respondents also focussed on the poor diction of newscasters, and poor usage of the Maltese language.

Professor Clark said many people have turned to on-demand programmes and downloads in order to avoid the flurry of adverts seen on local television.

In a speech,  Culture Minister Owen Bonnici said the biggest challenge faced by the industry is its small size, though it is managing to punch above its weight.