The Malta Eurovision Song Contest (MESC) will not have a live show in 2024, according to the newly published rules and regulations.
Instead, the contest's 12 finalists will perform in a "live-on-tape" recording and will have a €5,000 budget each to produce a music video.
"Both the live-on-tape acts and music videos will be shown to the general public," say the contest's new rules and regulations, published on Tuesday.
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Public Broadcasting Service sources said budgetary concerns and difficulty to find a venue for a live show were among the reasons for the decision.
Foreign consultants also pushed for the song contest's new format, the sources said.
"The final night will resemble an awards show rather than a song contest," the source said.
The competition will become a television show rather than a 'televised festival'.
"The MESC is a television song contest. By its nature, it differs from any other type of locally organised festival in the sense that it strictly revolves around television," the MESC rules and regulations say.
"There is a difference between a television show and a televised festival. The emphasis is being made in the sense that the MESC has to be produced as a television show," the document says.
The contest to choose Malta's representative for 2024's Eurovision will be split into three stages, a selection phase, a semi-final, and a final.
Applications open on August 28.
"During the selection phase, all songs will be heard by the panel of professional judges in full playback form and without the artist's presence."
Those that make it to the semi-finals will perform live in a series of televised shows. Although the songs will not be sung live, the show will still be live.
The final phase includes a live-on-tape recording, a music video and the final show, which includes both the jury and the public vote.
Singers will have three attempts to perform a live-on-tape on a dedicated stage with a recorded backing track.
Each performance may have up to six artists on stage.
The recording and the music video will both be broadcast on the final night.
The festival's live final is very popular with local viewers.
This year, the competition's grand finale saw 265,000 viewers tune in: more than half Malta's population.
But this is not the first time PBS has changed how it selects Eurovision contestants.
In 2019 and 2021, Michela Pace and Destiny Chukunyere represented Malta on the European stage after winning X-Factor Malta.
The COVID-19 pandemic stopped the 2020 Eurovision from taking place.
In 2022 and 2023, the MESC returned with Emma Muscat and The Busker winning the live song contest.