According to Maltese TV viewers, pay TV does not come cheap but they are happy with the service. However, they seem to have embraced the digital era in terms of access, though the adoption of LCD/Plasma and HD-ready sets is still low.

These are the results of a survey commissioned by the Malta Communications Authority and carried out last April/May among 1,200 respondents. While 66.53 per cent of respondents were female, 68 per cent had up to secondary level of education.

Almost half of the households interviewed have at least two TV sets (45.13 per cent), and 39.73 per cent have one. Only 0.67 per cent do not have a television.

However, only 17 per cent of sets are of the LCD/Plasma type, and around 19 per cent of these owners could not say whether they are high-definition ready or not. Almost 88 per cent have a pay TV subscription, either with cable technology or digital terrestrial TV. The absolute majority have either analogue cable (40.9 per cent) or digital cable (33.11 per cent). Digital terrestrial services were found in 26.85 per cent of cases, while only three per cent had a satellite system. Comparison with a previous survey in 2006 shows a mass migration from analogue to digital cable and the rise of DTTV at the expense of cable. Satellite viewing is down from 16 per cent three years ago.

There are 12.5 per cent who are still dependent on analogue terrestrial reception. These are the ones who will be affected by the switchover from analogue to digital TV on December 31, 2010. After that date, Maltese TV stations will not be available on analogue terrestrial and these subscribers must either get a digital set-top box or a TV set with in-built DTTV reception to continue watching local channels.

In terms of expenses and satisfaction, the general trend is that analogue and digital cable TV users find the services more expensive than DTTV users. In fact, over 43 per cent of analogue cable TV subscribers think their service is either expensive or very expensive. The percentage of digital cable users goes up to 56 per cent. Nevertheless the majority of users are happy with the quality of the service.

Only 26 per cent of DTTV subscribers say it's expensive or very expensive, and 70 per cent are satisfied or very satisfied with the service.

Statistics for premium TV channel viewing have not changed much over the last few years, with subscribers to sports packages on both cable and DTTV platforms at 16 per cent and movies at seven per cent.

Only 24 per cent of pay TV subscribers ever switched provider, and the main reasons were better or more channels (36 per cent) or better value for money (32 per cent). Of these, 92 per cent did not find it difficult to switch.