One Productions chairman Jason Micallef, a former Labour Party secretary general, once again hit out at Public Broadcasting Services after a National Audit Office report found that the national station registered a €3.5 million loss in the last two and a half years.

Writing on Facebook, Mr Micallef said that this had happened in spite of a state subsidy of €3.5 million which will grow to €4 million in 2016.

It is shameful, he wrote.

Mr Micallef is known for his criticism of PBS.

In September, the Valletta 18 chairman said that PBS is boasting that it had doubled the viewership of One TV. But given that it is subsidised €3.5 million a year from taxpayers’ money and has an accumulated debt of €14 million, “I cannot really understand this euphoria”.

Last May, he was very critical of Malta’s participation at the Eurovision Song Contest after the country failed to make it to the final.