Maltese operators team up for joint sports offering

Harald Rösch presenting TSN

Maltese cable operator Melita and telecom rival GO have teamed up to offer a unified sports offering, ending an ongoing competition to secure rights to top-tier football.

Starting from August, the pair will launch Total Sports Network (TSN), which will be available on both their platforms.

TSN will offer a mix of premium sports content including English Premier League, Italian Serie A, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, German Bundesliga, the Maltese BOV Premier League and FA Cup football, alongside Formula 1, Moto GP, tennis and other sports.

In total, eight new HD sports channels will be offered to both Melita and GO subscribers under the TSN brand. Melita and GO will separately communicate directly with their customers with further details in the coming weeks.

“We have agreed to pool our rights with GO for the benefit of all our customers who follow sports. The breadth of premium sports we’ll be offering will be unparalleled in Europe, and marks another step forward for us in delighting our customers,” said Harald Rösch, Melita CEO.

“We are excited to bring Total Sports Network to the local market. By combining TV broadcast capabilities and rights of both GO and Melita, customers in Malta and Gozo can now enjoy a richer sports experience. This has been a long time request from customers, and we are glad to be in a position to make this happen,” said Nikhil Patil, GO CEO.

The agreement between the pair was also welcomed by Maltese parliamentarian Silvio Schembri, who is responsible for the country’s digital economy.

Both Melita and GO have suffered from competition from a range of semi-legal and illegal IPTV services.

Earlier this year, Melita was forced to abandon plans to merge with mobile operator Vodafone Malta after GO objected to the plan and the country’s competition watchdog set conditions that the parties felt unable to meet.