TVM was launched on 29 September 1962 as the first television service in the country, with technical backing from Rediffusion UK,[2] although television broadcasts from neighbouring Sicily in far-southern Italy could be received in Malta from as early as 1957.[3] Until 1964, TVM was based at Rediffusion House in Gwardamanġa, after which it was moved to the nearby, purpose-built Television House.[4]
In October 2011, PBS announced an overhaul of the TVM brand, to mark 50 years since the establishment of the Malta Television Service in 2012. The new branding pays homage to previous TVM identities, and makes use of the Maltese cross, which features heavily in the 2010's L-Aħbarijiet title sequence.
In March 2012, PBS started its trial transmissions on the new sister channel TVM2, which replaced Education 22 (E22). The broadcast time starts at 6am and finishes at around 11:30pm.
In 2021, PBS announced another rebrand. The rebrand was met with criticism, since it was held in the form of a competition, and the competitors didn't even get acknowledgment for participating. The new logos for PBS, TVM and TVMNews+ were especially met with fierce criticism, after some competitors took to Facebook to share their designs.[5]
This was an overhaul of all their stations. TVM's main focus turned into drama and family entertainment. TVM2 was rebranded to TVMNews+ which started focusing on News and Current affairs. TVM's online presence was also changed, with the URL of the online portal being changed from tvm.com.mt to tvmnews.mt[6]
In 2022, TVMi was rebranded to become more modern, and offer on demand recordings of most programmes broadcast on their network. PBS also released a brand-new TV station, named TVMSport+, aimed at broadcasting local and foreign sports. The channels made another rebrand in early October 2023.
Programming
TVM broadcasts a mix of news, sport, entertainment, magazine programming and children's programmes. It is funded through a government grant and commercial advertising. The majority of programmes broadcast on TVM are produced externally of PBS. PBS publishes details of the types of programmes it wishes to broadcast on TVM and production companies provide PBS with a detailed report of their proposal for the programme.
Most programmes are broadcast in Maltese, however the Maltese speak both Maltese and English so English also features, mainly in BBC and ITV titles. Sunday evenings are dedicated to classic British comedy, and English language films are shown on Saturday evenings. The English language feed of Euronews is also broadcast daily.
A new programme schedule was announced, including an increased number of news bulletins and a new current affairs-led breakfast show. For several years including the 2015/2016 period TVM had the highest number of viewers compared to the rest of Maltese television stations put together. Some of the current hits are Xarabank, Disset, Strada Stretta, Skjetti and news broadcasting. Statistics show that more than a quarter of the population of Malta watch these on a regular basis.[7]
News
News programming on TVM is the only major TV news not produced by a political party's media apparatus in Malta. The two other major Maltese networks (One and NET Television) are owned by the Labour and Nationalist parties respectively.
TVM airs TVAM, a breakfast television program focused on news and current affairs, weekday mornings from 06:30 to 09:00.
TVM's main newscast L-Aħbarijiet ("News"), commonly referred to as L-Aħbarijiet tat-tmienja ("News at 8") is aired daily from 20:00 to 20:50, along with short news updates titled throughout the day. When important events happened, such as the death of Queen Elizabeth II and Pope Benedict XVI, TVM broadcast lengthened editions of their regular News Bulletins.[8] When Breaking News (Aħbar Straordinarja) breaks out, TVM occasionally interrupts regular programming to broadcast a special news report[9]
TVM previously carried bulletins in English from Euronews and Britain's ITN. TVMNews+ still regularly broadcasts streams from Euronews to fill gaps in their programming schedule.
On 8 March 2012, PBS also started trials of TVM HD, the first HD channel from Malta. The channel was available to all those who had Melita Netbox or iBox and could be found on channel 110. GO, Melita's main rival in the cable television industry on the Maltese Islands included the channel later in their schedule and also exclusively TVM2 HD. This channel was eventually retired once all TVM programmes were being broadcast in HD, and therefore there was no longer the need for the HD channel. The logo was used in popular culture after the channel removal until September 2021.
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