Telecommunications company GO plc has launched a channel that will feature local television content exclusively.

‘Tokis’ features only Maltese drama productions and starts broadcasting from 8.45pm. The service will be available to all GO television customers and is included for viewers as part of their basic package.

The Tokis logo.

GO’s on-demand service already features over 1,000 hours of Maltese television content and to date has registered over 1.7 million views on GO’s on-demand platform. In addition, six new local productions will be available on GO’s television platform until June of next year.

Calling the launch of the channel a significant milestone for Malta’s television history, GO chief commercial officer Antonio Ivankovic said that the company was moved to further invest in local content to meet audience demand.

“Statistics clearly show that the Maltese community has a clear and strong appetite for local TV content, in particular drama,” he said.

“We knew that if we really wanted to give our customers the experience they were after, we had to deliver more of the content they loved. We also recognised the financial and other resource constraints the industry was facing, limiting the number of dramas that could be produced yearly,” Ivankovic continued.

“We have the technology, the resources and the demand, so we knew that content had to be the next step in our customer’s experience.”

In addition to purchasing local content, Ivankovic said that GO has committed €1 million a year to the local film industry to creaser “new and richer content”.