Showtime, Liquorish and Tista’ Tkun Int out of TVM schedule
Producers from different private production houses are up in arms against the PBS board and finally deciding to air their disgruntlement against the procedure used by the station to close the winter schedule, which they describe as “a veritable auction”.
Rachel Vella of Tista’ Tkun Int started off the domino effect by declaring publicly on MaltaToday’s Midweek edition last Wednesday that she was opting out of the TVM schedule after protracted negotiations with the PBS board.
The news triggered a ripple effect, prompting other producers to spill the beans about this year’s schedule selection process and their exasperation with PBS chairman Joe Fenech Conti and Chief Executive Albert Debono.
Flanking Vella so far there is Steve Aquilina of Aceline Entertainment, co-producers of the Saturday night cabaret programme Showtime, and Andrea Cassar, presenter of Liquorish – all of them declaring they have opted out of the TVM schedule after being asked for extremely inflated prices for air time – some even double the amount they paid last year – and quoting the PBS chairman and chief executive as having told them that they had “cash on the table” from other producers.
“The way they have conducted negotiations they have turned this process into a veritable auction,” said Aquilina, echoing the same words used by Vella and Cassar. “The amount they are asking for is impossible. We’re very disappointed.”
Cassar, who has been presenting Liquorish for the last three years, spoke of the chaos she had to go through, booking and cancelling flights abroad for her programme’s participants three times.
“We submitted our proposal and demo tape after being selected by the editorial board,” she said. “Because of our travel logistics, inoculations, bookings and plans we have to know at least three months in advance whether our programme has been accepted or not. We have 15 participants and were planning to go to an extremely remote country for five to six weeks. We started eliminating production costs to try and meet the price demanded to us by PBS, but then we were told that our slot was taken by someone offering even more. It ended up like an auction.”
Contacted yesterday, PBS Chairman Joe Fenech Conti said he could not understand the producers’ surprise.
“It is an auction, it’s a competitive process in which we seek to maximise our income from commercial programmes,” he said. “I don’t know why they’re surprised by this.”
The chairman said he could not discuss the details of negotiations as there was sensitive commercial information involved, although the majority of the schedule was finalised and soon to be sent for the editorial board’s and Broadcasting Authority’s approval.
Meanwhile, MaltaToday has confirmed that Brainbox productions will be producing Il-Kunjata to be hosted by DJ Gianni on Thursday at prime time instead of Tista’ Tkun Int. Eileen Montesin’s Dejjem Tieghek Becky has also been confirmed.
Watermelon, the company that was in trouble earlier this year with Endemol for production rights over l-Ispjun, will now be producing the “real” reality TV show Big Brother after buying the rights from the Dutch company.
Watermelon Director Pierre Portelli confirmed to The Times he was asked for more than double what he paid last year the day after Vella made her declarations.
“I will not go into detail about figures. But yes, we were asked to pay more than double what we paid last year,” he said. “At first I thought that they where doing this to us only due to the Big Brother brand we were offering, but upon reading what happened to Tista’ Tkun Int I was shocked to discover that they had really done it with everyone… I think it was crazy to lose such a popular show like Tista Tkun Int, which brought so many viewers to TVM.”
