Her slogan is ‘Follow your dream’, but just as her programme registered the highest audience share, her loyal viewers will have to follow her on a new television station after an acrimonious break-up with TVM. By Karl Schembri
Her slogan is ‘Follow your dream’, but just as her programme registered the highest audience share, her loyal vieVella has cult status: she carries the halo of a venerable woman on the way to sainthood, dishing out little miracles and convincing the masses that their dreams can come true.
Tista’ Tkun Intwers will have to follow her on a new television station after an acrimonious break-up with TVM
Rachel means precisely that – it could be you, you the unknown, common viewer, the downtrodden man in the street, the battered wife or sick child, the moribund Maltese immigrant in Australia or the illegitimate son of an unknown father; you the quintessential nobody, ultimate failure of society or high class reject, marginalised single mother or jobless father on the dole… you could be touched by Rachel’s generosity and her knack of turning tragedies into prime time tear-jerking stories filled with freebies, and get your 15 minutes of fame.
Alas, just at the peak of her ascent, when the Broadcasting Authority’s survey confirms her programme as the most viewed, outflanking Xarabank with a staggering 24.24 per cent audience share, Rachel and her team opt out of TVM.
I meet her just upon taking her decision to spill the beans and tell it all, after long days treading cautiously as negotiations with the PBS chairman and chief executive were still somehow open.
“This is our decision, definitely,” Vella tells me as I ask her whether this is just a tactic of hers to grab public sympathy and get more lobbying power with PBS. But she is categorical in her answer. “No, this is a final decision, definitely. That’s it. I’m sorry but this is the situation. TVM will definitely not have Tista’ Tkun Int – they made it impossible for us to remain there. Unfortunately the national station is denying the people the programme they view most. I can’t udnerstand the reasons behind this decision.”
So what happened exactly? In nutshell, a cynic might be tempted to say that the PBS board of directors did what the editorial board never had the courage to do – it drove out the most popular programme on the grounds for which it is most often criticised: exploitation of the vulnerable.
But listening to her version, it seems the PBS board based its decisions solely on financial considerations – a claim the board’s chairman himself has no problem to confirm with regard to commercial programmes like Tista’ Tkun Int.
“Editorially there was no problem with the programme,” she says. “Initially the chairman told us they wanted to increase the rates of our air time – nothing new there, I’m used to it as it happens every single year. This time however he told me ‘We have cash on the table from other people’ who wanted our time slot on Thursdays and Sundays. So we either had to double our offer, or that’s it. In our second meeting he insisted on the same thing. My dad insisted with them that we have much more costs than just the air time. In fact we are aware that nobody else paid as much as we did to buy the air time in the past seven years. The air time is only part of our cost although a very significant part of our cost, though we invest much more than that. The chairman also told us something that was very hard on us. He said that if we do not take the air time we would do him a favour, because he had cash on the table. He was just looking at the finances.”
Vella says the PBS chairman told her they had “cash on the table” from other producers who wanted to take over Thursdays and Sundays when her programme used to be broadcast.
“I had to either double the price for the air time cost or forget it,” she insists. “This year PBS has only one interest and that is money. Anyway we believe that with all that money for the air time, a producer will hardly have anything left to spend on the production. We had long talks about this and the only way to meet the rates they demanded of us was by cheapening our production quality, something which we are definitely not going to do. We can’t do that when we have that kind of soaring viewership, if anything viewers expect better every year. I also reminded him how much money we generate every Thursday, and jobs we offer – part time and full time, the salaries we’re dishing out. His reply was ‘The minister did not place me here to protect jobs. This is not the ETC. I’m here so that PBS makes money.’ Yet, it is no secret that the air time they are selling for the same time slot on other days is being sold for much less to others than the amounts we were ready to pay. And we always paid our dues to PBS on time, guaranteed. There were times when we were told that we were it not for us, PBS could not issue the salaries to its workers. That’s a fact.
“So this is the situation. Tista’ Tkun Int won’t be on TVM for the upcoming season.”
As we speak, I suddenly hear the Tista’ Tkun Int song coming from somewhere, apparently from under the desk. At first I thought my colleagues had played a prank on me or something, but suddenly I realise it is her own mobile.
Indeed, Rachel has become a living brand: a breathing, lifesize advert of herself and a fierce yet emotional marketeer. I can see her selling Tista’ Tkun Int board games and Playstation video games in a couple of years, and maybe even get a yachting team to participate in the Middlesea Race bearing the sails with her face, just as she did with buses. Possibly she will end also on the Euro coins when Turkey joins the EU.
“Tista’ Tkun Int has also one of the most important things it can have – we give extreme importance to our advertisers. I am aware that I am nothing without my advertisers. They are my partners, my shareholders almost. So they have to be happy in order for me to keep functioning. That’s something that’s totally alien to PBS. I have to get down on my knees begging for mercy to treat us decently.”
Now Vella is decided and there’s no turning back – she’s going elsewhere.
“We always believed that if we had to stop, we would stop at the peak, at the very best, and that’s where we are right now. This was the best year as regards viewers, and advertisers admit they had the best year ever. Most of last year’s advertisers have already confirmed they want to advertise with us again this year, without any marketing effort from our end. Perversely, that is working against us, because PBS has this perception that ‘this programme is already sold, then it must make millions of liri’. In reality any businessman out there knows there are profits and loss, income, turnover and expenses. PBS don’t care about costs. Between security, dancers, crew, cameramen, makeup artists, hair dressers and everyone else, every Thursday we employ from 60 to 70 people. Maybe even the viewers don’t realise, but we don’t have a problem with that, but PBS doesn’t care that to send a crew of five people to China this week and to Canada the next and then to Australia and so forth you have huge costs, and we cover all the travel and accommodation expenses of the people who travel with us on their stories. There is no other programme that invests so much in content and quality and what it offers to the public.
“The truth is that whichever station takes Tista’ Tkun Int will become the leading station. As you can see from the last Broadcasting Authority survey, Tista’ Tkun Int is not only winning audiences on Thursday but also on Sunday mornings. And when you look at our viewers, you wouldn’t believe it, they’re from all sectors and classes of society, and from all parts of Malta. North and south, the Sliema-San Gwann area is as strong as Mellieha and the north of Malta.
“Also, as opposed to stations like Net and One, where they have fixed rates for specific time slots, PBS is selling its air time as if it were an auction. It is an auction, actually. Since when is the national broadcaster’s only obligation just money and the bottom line? The way they’re operating means that air time is up for grabs for whoever has the money, irrespective of what they have to offer. For all I know, a fascist can just buy air time and broadcast fascist programmes if he pays a lot of money.”
I tell her that, ironically, the editorial board selected the programme and it had to be the board of directors to keep the programme out of the schedule.
“Editorially we had everything on board. Which other programme has a resident psychologist? Some may have criticised us at face value, maybe because they didn’t know exactly what they were talking about, but for the editorial board we passed with flying colours. But for the PBS chairman it’s just a matter of money. Double the rate and get our slot. I think they’re just on a quest to make money.”
Vella does not hide her ambitions – she also happens to follow her dreams, you know.
“Tista’ Tkun Int on a new station will be bigger and better,” she says, although she also admits she gets thrilled by “challenges of successful advertising campaigns” and the feel-good factor that comes with the image of a “tele-philanthropist”.
“Colin has just met a lovely young boy in Mellieha. He told him, ‘Do you know where I’m from? I’m from Romania! My mum and dad love me to bits… the Maltese ones! But I’m still in touch with my natural mother.’ You see, that was unthinkable a few years ago, adoption was sort of taboo. Our programme has brought out several Maltese realities that used to be kept underground, it has brought a new culture that it’s OK to be adopted, and so many other realities.
“But let me tell you; the feeling you get when a person gives you a chance to help him or her is something you can’t explain.”
For her critics and adversaries, her popularity might be equally unexplainable, but her viewers will be following her… and their dreams.
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