The producers of Tista’ Tkun Int have decided to pull the popular programme off the TVM schedule after seven years, MaltaToday can reveal.
The decision comes just a day after the Broadcasting Authority released its latest audience survey confirming that Tista’ Tkun Int is the most viewed programme among all stations, registering its record audience share peak on Thursday nights with 24.24 per cent between April and June.
Speaking to MaltaToday, Rachel Vella, executive producer of Tista’ Tkun Int, said the production company’s board decided to call it a day after weeks of “prolonged negotiations” with PBS who demanded that Tista’ Tkun Int pays double last year’s amount for the same time slot on Thursdays and Sundays.
“This is our decision, definitely,” Vella said. “Unfortunately this has happened to us year after year with PBS. We have passed through this trauma for the past seven years and we made it clear to PBS, that we did not want to go through this all that again, we just didn’t want to have that kind of hassles anymore.
“Every single summer, we end up the last to conclude negotiations with PBS, whilst other producers have already been selling their programmes for over a month now. Seven years ago we were practically the first to buy air time on TVM, so we feel that they take us for granted, and expect us to pay anything to get our programme.
“This year we decided to call it a day. Instead of waiting for another month to conclude negotiations, we just decided this is it. We did not want to be left the last to conclude then having to do all the selling and producing in one month.”
Vella said 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 said. “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. So this is the situation. Tista’ Tkun Int won’t be on TVM for the upcoming season.”
The producers wouldn’t say whether they have reached an agreement with another television stations. They just said that they had “offers” from other stations that they were still evaluating.
Attempts to contact PBS Chairman Joe Fenech Conti proved futile yesterday.
Full interview with Rachel Vella will be published in next Sunday’s edition of MaltaToday.