Encouraging findings regards quality of service on Malta’s pay-TV sector

The MCA carries a regulatory role that necessitates constant monitoring of market developments and feedback from consumers. For the last few months, the MCA has worked with Grant Thornton to carry out perception surveys, to ensure that the MCA keeps abreast with developments in areas related to electronic communications products and services. The findings of these surveys also feed into further work carried out by the MCA in its market reviews of competition.

This 2017 survey now published concerns the broadcasting and pay TV sector. The findings are encouraging from a quality of service stand-point, with 79% of respondents saying they are happy with their pay-TV subscription.

A point of concern however is the widespread lack of customer knowledge on monthly expenditure and prices. In fact, just 45% of respondents knew their monthly expenditure on pay-TV. The main reason cited by respondents is that they purchase the service in a bundle and therefore do not get specific costs breakdown information in their bills. Half of the respondents who know their monthly expenses on the service feel that their monthly expenditure is reasonable.

Another important point that emerged from the survey relates to the dwindling use of free-to-air TV and satellite TV. The percentage of respondents using free-to-air went down to 1% in 2017 from 4% in 2015, whilst just 3% of respondents said they have access to satellite TV.

Usage of IPTV is another factor that has been addressed in the current research, with the main survey finding that 21% of respondents with a standard pay-TV subscription also own an IPTV-Android box. The percentage falls to 13% when asking respondents if they are regular users of IPTV-Android boxes. For more information on the survey findings, you may access the following link.