Melita to air all 64 World Cup games

It must come as a great relief for soccer enthusiasts to know that all Germany 2006 World Cup matches will be aired on Melita Cable for a subscription fee.

For the past decades, the Maltese have followed the World Cup on Italian state-owned channel Rai and lately even on PBS. But the free-to-air status of the world's most-followed sports event was dealt a major blow by FIFA last year when it sold the broadcasting rights of Germany 2006, meaning that state television would not be able to broadcast all the games for free as it used to.

However, Melita Cable said yesterday it had acquired the exclusive rights to broadcast all 64 matches locally for both digital and analogue subscribers, specifically on Melita Sports One and Melita Sports Two of the six sports channels available on digital, and on channels 47 and 48 (the Sports Channel) on analogue subscriptions.

Melita Cable's head of sales and marketing, Franco de Gabriele, said all games would be broadcast live against a monthly subscription fee - Lm5.81 for the Sports Channel (analogue) and Lm6 for Melita Sports (digital).

Melita was also trying to make arrangements with one of the local television stations so that the opening ceremony, the final match, the two semi-finals and the match for the third place can be broadcast free of charge, Mr Degabriele said. Besides the actual matches, which will be broadcast with foreign commentary, Melita will provide pre- and post-match analysis through a locally-produced programme, together with an official preview series of 16 weekly episodes that will include features on the history of the World Cup and interviews with players and teams.

Besides broadcasting the games between June 9 and July 9, Melita will be airing the 2006 FIFA World Cup Gala, to be held in Berlin two days before the opening.

Melita Group chairman Joe Gasan said the company had worked very hard to buy the rights. He would not divulge the amount Melita paid FIFA but did say the package was "not cheap".