Take the Bonaci family, for instance. They have now moved from Super One to NET where they will be hosting a daily morning show. They were very much the stars of the NET programme launch on Friday at St George’s Bay.

NET itself has lost popular and comely Andrea Cassar who is said to have moved to PBS.

Antonella Vassallo has completed the circle: she started from Smash, moved to NET, then to PBS and Super One, and is now firmly back at NET where she courageously is attempting the Friday evening slot, a time usually dominated by PBS with Xarabank.

Astutely, Antonella’s Arena starts at 9.30pm, that is, about the time when Xarabank viewers tend to get sleepy.

It also seems that the local stations will be focusing on Maltese programmes rather than carrying foreign material, with long-proven favourites like Friends (NET) being the exception that proves the rule.

Super One will hold its launch in the coming days, but the talk at NET’s launch on Friday was the goings on at PBS where utter confusion was reported on the assignment of programme slots.

Tista Tkun Int has now been relegated to Thursday evenings and this has in turn pushed out of the schedule an already reached agreement for a continuation of Ewropej. This may now get a 6pm slot, which is considered highly undesirable.

The long discussions at PBS seem to have favoured the two political stations who have gobbled up timeslots and proposals. Although there are differences, and as said Super One still has to make the formal announcement, it appears the two will be mirror images of each other with barely a difference between them. After all, it was Anna Mallia, niece of a former Super One chairman, who wrote that the station was handing out programmes to people who spoke against the MLP in the pre-referendum days.

Super One will be coming out with a breakfast show with one of Malta’s foremost personages while the Bonaci family will also have the Saturday afternoon slot on NET.

Absent from NET’s programming is Pierre Portelli who however seems to have been given the all-important 6pm to 7.30pm slot on PBS. This decision may brinmight give rise to litigation by unsuccessful bidders.

If NET is a sign of what its counterpart will be doing, its attractions will be a series of rather sharp programmes, developed over the afternoon and evening in hour and half-hour slots, with news bulletins at 2pm, 3pm, 6pm, 7.45pm, 9.30pm and 11pm

Prime time on NET on Monday will see a modern drama, Ingroppi (the Charles Stroud and Lino Grech popular production) while Super One will go for a re-run of Id-Dar tas-Soru, which is equally popular.

Reality shows have become quite popular. NET will have its Campioni on Tuesdays while its Saranno Famosi will be Nominati (note the Italian name) by Louise Tedesco and Mark Caruana on Sundays.

With Xarabank, Becky, Bondiplus and Tista’ Tkun Int, however, PBS still retains the heavyweights of Maltese viewership, controversies and all.