Speaking informally at the launch of Super One new autumn schedule, television station sources said they are being forced by the intense competition between them to sell their airtime at far cheaper rates than they would like to.
Furthermore, the many of new companies which are sprouting up and gobbling airtime like there’s no tomorrow, then proceed to target advertising sales charge far more vehemence and with far lower rates than the television stations themselves.
Thus, when the television stations advertising sections try and sell their station’s advertising they normally find that the smaller advertising agents for the many programmes that are outsourced on purchased airtime would have approached the same clients with vastly cheaper rates.
So on the one hand, through selling airtime, the stations ensure that their slots are occupied, but at the same time they create competition for themselves which ultimately restricts the already restricted advertising revenue.
Hence a call, which was proposed informally at the Super One launch, for the three main television stations to get together and try and tackle this issue which is common to all of them.
With Super One launching its schedule last week, and NET some two weeks before, and with the schedule starting today, it is PBS which has so far not launched its autumn schedule.
As was remarked when NET launched its autumn schedule, the two political stations have taken extra steps this year to mix their product, so much so that they have become almost interchangeable, with some protagonists changing stations and moving from one side of the spectrum to the other.
Super One can boast, this time round, that it will be having 48 local programmes without any imported programmes at all, a far cry from the times not so many years ago, when many television stations were just relay stations for imported fare.
Super One has taken the plunge: it will be having a daily breakfast show, with popular Martin Sapiano and his wisecracks, and Jacqui Mercieca hosting the show.
Another new face on Super One is Lynn Chircop, of Eurovision Song Contest fame, who will have a Sunday morning show.
As to serious drama, Super One will have a new version of Francis Ebejer’s Id-Dar tas-Soru but the apple of Albert Marshall’s eye is docu-drama Il-Fenici, which will be premiered in January and which Mr Marshall hopes to launch internationally.
Toni Abela and Ruth Frendo present the Friday evening discussion programme, now named Monalisa, and I could not agree with the new name given to what used to be Team, the popular current events programme, now named Target: Never change a winning Team.
Norman Hamilton has retained his popular Saturday evening sitting room informal and lively discussion, Bla Agenda.