€1 million by Film Commissioner to fund Reality TV programmes

Taxpayers are now subsidising local reality TV shows on PBS and Labour’s ONE, thanks to the intervention of Film Commissioner Johann Grech.

The Film Commission’s budget is aimed at attracting foreign film productions to Malta and support the local film industry. It is not designed for national TV reality shows.

Yet, for some reason, three local companies producing reality shows like MasterChef, Love Island, and Liquorish received a total of €1 million in taxpayer subsidies through direct grants from the Malta Film Commission.

It is unclear why Grech justified using the Film Commission’s budget for these productions or how they were selected.

The film tax rebate incentives were designed to attract foreign film producers of a certain calibre to Malta. The rationale behind this was that foreign films provide a significant positive economic activity.

This is not the case for local TV productions.

Data obtained by The Shift shows that in 2024, The largest beneficiary was Greatt Company Ltd, owned by former Nationalist Party officials Anton Attard and Mark Grech, also known as ‘il-Guru’.

Their company received three different grants totalling over €600,000 for their local productions.

Another beneficiary was Liquorish Productions Ltd, owned by Andrea Cassar and Warren Brimmer. Both began their careers at the PN’s NET TV and produced a reality show of the same name on Labour’s ONE TV.

Media Exclusive, owned by Ben Camille, Christina Gravina, Martina Zammit, and Lara Caruana, received more than €141,000 to produce Love Island on TVM.

According to the grants’ rules, as explained by the Film Commissioner, only programmes passing a ‘cultural test’ are eligible for subsidies. When The Shift asked Grech to explain the cultural value of programmes, he did not reply.

Questions sent to Minister Owen Bonnici, who is responsible for the Malta Film Commission, regarding the rationale behind subsidising local reality shows, also went unanswered.

The minister was also asked to clarify why the scheme, introduced by Grech, appears to favour certain local TV producers over others who focus more on cultural and educational programming, which might better justify government subsidies since they are less commercially viable.

The same producers were given other funds by government entitites. Greaat Company Limited was given over €100,000 by Malta Enterprise for Shark Tank, even though it does not fall within the agency’s remit of attracting foreign direct investment.

It is as yet unclear whether PBS has been adding other state-funded subsidies to the same programmes under the Public Service Obligation scheme, which is administered in complete secrecy.