Med.TV among global streamer Rakuten's top-performing launches of 2026

Malta-based Med.TV has emerged as one of global streaming platform Rakuten TV's top-performing launches of 2026.

Med.TV has also reported a sharp lift in viewer engagement following a targeted advertising and marketing push on Rakuten TV, with total viewing time rising more than six-fold. 

In February, Med.TV announced that it had become available on Rakuten TV, Europe’s leading FAST TV platform, bringing the Malta-based channel's Mediterranean programming to a wider audience across key European markets.

Med.TV is the first station of its kind to focus exclusively on Mediterranean culture, lifestyle and business. It also marks a first for Malta, becoming the country's first broadcaster to obtain a satellite licence, enabling the channel to beam its content to more than 160 million households across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Speaking about the results, Med.TV founder Anton Tabone said the numbers had surpassed what the team had hoped to achieve in the channel's first quarter on the platform.

“When we set out to bring Med.TV to Rakuten TV, our goal was simple: to put Mediterranean storytelling in front of as many viewers as possible. To see the channel rank among the platform’s top launches of the year, and to see viewtime climb the way it has, tells us the appetite is real. This is only the beginning.”

Through Rakuten TV, Med.TV can now be watched across the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries, Spain, France, Italy, and Malta, broadening the channel’s reach in new markets.

Rakuten TV’s distribution footprint adds significant scale to Med.TV’s availability. The platform is present on 150 million TVs worldwide, with 71 million remote controls featuring the Rakuten button, and 89% of its users viewing via Connected TV (CTV). 

Med.TV’s launch on Med.TV generated more than 1.5 million impressions.

Manolo Mantovani, Chief Operating Office of Med.TV, said the team was particularly encouraged by the consistency of the engagement across very different markets.

“What stood out to us was not just the headline figures, but how uniformly the campaign performed from the Nordics to Malta. The fact that audiences in eight different markets engaged with the creative and with our content at well above benchmark levels confirms for us that Mediterranean content has a natural home on a pan-European platform like Rakuten TV,” he said. 

Med.TV featured on Rakuten TV's Top 15 channel list for a total of four weeks, two during the launch promotion and two more during a promotional campaign. The slot was paired with promotional backgrounds carrying the tagline "Your Mediterranean TV Channel" to anchor the channel's value proposition.

“The Top 15 placement gave us a level of visibility that money alone could not have bought. To be on that list for four consecutive weeks, in markets as competitive as the UK and Italy, is a strong signal that the channel is finding its audience,” Mantovani said. 

Plays on the channel spiked during the launch promotion and have remained stable through the media campaign, while impressions were up 62% during the media campaign compared with the launch promotion, a pattern the team attributes directly to the Top 15 feature and the broader marketing push.

"The most encouraging signal is what happens after the campaign ends. Viewtime is still climbing, not falling. That is the difference between a campaign that simply delivered clicks and one that built a habit,” Tabone said. 

Med.TV secured approval from the Broadcasting Authority to begin transmitting last year and subsequently signed a national distribution agreement with GO.

Since then it has continued to expand its footprint through a combination of strategic distribution partnerships and original programming, positioning the channel for further growth across Europe and beyond.