Dr Michael Vella Haber was appointed Managing Director of One Productions in 2005. He is the driving force behind the modernization of One TV and Super One Radio. Marie Benoît asks him what brought about the huge success at the recent TV awards

What does Dr Vella Haber consider to be the reasons behind this tremendous success for One TV which won 19 out of 37 awards? A very busy man, this successful dentist now turned successful managing director replies: “The fact that One TV was recently declared the Television Station of the Year certainly did not come about by coincidence. It is merely a confirmation that One Productions, after publicly declaring its plan and strategy for the forthcoming years way back in 2005, left no stone unturned to reach these goals. At the time we said that Super One’s goal was to become the leading station in Malta. To get to this, we had to take a close look at our operations and working practices and re-define them in such a manner as to attain commercial and financial viability.”

Dr Vella Haber explains that they managed to achieve this aim in a relatively short period of time and this allowed them to move forward to embrace leading technology as it became available to the industry. This hardworking man who loves a challenge continues: “This we did to the extent that we can today boast that One TV technologically leads in the broadcasting industry. This was no mean feat as hundreds of thousands of pounds had to be generated solely through our operations to make good for this migration.”

Automation and migration to digital production and transmission improved One TV’s picture quality no end, as devotees of the station, like me, will tell you. Dr Vella Haber continues: “Contemporarily, we focused on our visual impact and identity and re-branded the station as One TV.” Once picture quality was in place, the next step was to ensure content quality. “To achieve this, we realised that this could only be come by if we created a team spirit among all the players within the One chain of production. So we worked on synergy among our employees, production houses, advertising agencies and televiewers. This synergy is now the envy of our competitors and it was very evident on Awards Day, this even by those production houses who have joined One TV this year and who won awards on 24 November in the name of our competitors.”

Dr Vella Haber emphasises that much is owed ‘to all those who have sustained us and had faith in us during this migration and time of change as some could not take the pressure, others found it hard to embrace the new technology whilst others still lost faith that we could actually manage to get to our goals and therefore moved on.”

Today One employs more people than three years ago and is very proud of its young and enthusiastic workforce. I ask him to comment on the Awards. “One TV won the only two People’s Choice Awards available and another sixteen awards as far as the quality of the product is concerned. This led to another award as the Best TV Station of the year, an awesome total of 19 awards out of 37. We owe all this to the people working within One who assisted us to sustain and finally attain our dream: a perfect blend of popularity intertwined with the best of picture and content quality.”

I comment that Gizelle alone received 8 awards yet it had been turned down by PBS. Would he like to comment on this?

Chance, Dr Vella Harbour believes, favours the prepared mind. “This is what I was repeatedly told at University by my Bacteriology Professor, and this came in useful when I started my experience as Managing Director at One Productions two and a half years ago. Accepting Gizelle within our midst was one of the first decisions that I took together with my management. At the time I was an educated risk as we were faced with four youngsters presenting us with an excellent demo of a production, at the time called Evelyn. PBS had just turned down this production we were later to find out. We were fully aware that keeping the excellent level of scriptwriting, filming and editing week after week would by no means be an easy task. However, as always, One Productions was prepared to give space and have faith in upcoming talent and we now, together with Four People, co-produce Gizelle.”

So, two companies with foresight and vision were determined to produce this now very popular drama and take it to heights that have as yet been unmatched. Dr Vella Harber comments further: “Both companies do this because they believe that our televiewers deserve the best. These eight awards for Gizelle prove that our instincts were correct and today Four People and One TV have established an unparalleled working relationship, which is allowing us to plan and venture forth together for the upcoming schedules.

Dr Vella Haber is an enthusiastic man who likes to reach his goals. A team player, yes, but surely his leadership, drive and determination come into play, in the success of One TV.

“The bigger the challenge the greater is my determination. I have to hastily add that even I am sometimes amazed by the remarkable progress that my work force has been able to achieve in such a short period of time. We have today by far the best editing, production and transmission capabilities within the local broadcasting industry. One TV is today capable of transmitting live from five different localities in Malta and Gozo contemporarily, and at the same time allowing us to get to our televiewers: five activities happening at the same time in five different localities in real time into people’s homes.”

This, he says, was tried for the first time with astounding success on 14 August this year. He then comments on the crucial ‘bottom line’: “The financial side of our operations is likewise looking healthy for the third year running, the immediate step is not only to entrench this state of affairs but likewise we are endeavouring, as can be easily seen from our current schedule, to maintain this leading role as far as popularity and quality of content in the broadcasting industry is concerned. This year One TV has not only ensured a continuation of the excellent productions that saw us through last year’s schedule, but we have created further space to productions such as Showtime by Aceline and Studio Seven, Aroma Kitchen by 26th Frame. These productions alone this year received five awards. This apart from Mark Doneo’s inhouse drama Mirjana Coljero.

The synergy is truly impressive. After so much success what is the next step? Does he have any particular plans not only to keep their place as the leading TV station but to win even more awards next year?

“I hasten to add that my immediate plan, apart from all this, is to ensure that the station is not deprived of its broadcasting role by the Malta Communications Authority as, ironically, this is being threatened by an arrogant Authority which has as yet declined from making available the necessary bandwidth to allow us to transmit our productions in digital format in a free to air status, and this to the detriment of our televiewers

“Having said this our dream at One goes further then this as we will be gearing up to migrate to high definition as soon as the technology stabilises and obviously as soon as the necessary bandwidth is made available to us. At One we are collectively determined to continue being the catalyst so necessary to spearhead a controlled chain of events which will assist the broadcasting sector to keep abreast of the latest technology and standards.”